Nuruddin Rishi: Cooking in Pots of Clay

Nuruddin Rishi, also known as Sheikh Nuruddin (1377-1438 CE) lived in Kashmir, and is credited with founding the Rishi Order of Sufism.  Although there are many legends of his life, little is known for certain.  He married, and with his wife Zai Ded had three children, but none survived their childhood years.  Around the age of thirty, Nuruddin abandoned the world and  went to live in a cave, where he endured great hardship, spending perhaps a dozen years there in solitary meditation.  At this time his wife also became a hermit.  Nuruddin is considered the patron saint of Kashmir, and has greatly influenced many great mystics.

He created man with the earthly nature
and shaped him in the frame of clay.
He created all natural things from clay.
Cooking is done in pots of clay.
When life leaves,
the body is reduced to dust.
Dust gets mixed with dust.

* * *

Ice, icicles and snow–
God created them as different.
As the sun rises in the east
the three are turned into one.

Tr. Jaishree K. Odin

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