99 Doorways

Dervish Baba: The 99 most beautiful names of God are like 99 doorways to that mystery we call the Godhead. Dervishes hang about those doors hoping for handouts. You see, we are spiritually poor and make no bones about it! Whatever nobility we may acquire during our sojourn on this earth is the result of strict discipline. Our disciplinarian is faqr (poverty). So we boast no spiritual accomplishments; we make no claim to sainthood. Rather, we are like the dog Shibli observed returning to his master after having been shooed away. "What else would you have me do?" the dog asked Shibli. "He is my master." We are not proud when it comes to our acts of devotion. From time to time, we do service at one of the 99 doors--which is to say, we practice the divine attributes. Even so, we remain acutely aware of our failure to do those attributes justice. Our piety consists in our recognition that we are impious. For this reason, we consciously avoid acquiring a reputation for piety.