Overview
Bahya ibn Paquda’s Duties of the Heart argued that religious obligation includes intentions, trust, humility, self-examination, repentance, and love of God. Written in Judeo-Arabic, the work distinguished inward duties from commandments performed through bodily action without separating spirituality from Jewish law. Bahya drew upon rabbinic tradition, philosophy, ethics, and Islamic pietistic literature. Judah ibn Tibbon’s Hebrew translation greatly expanded its readership. The book became a foundational work of Jewish ethical and devotional literature, demonstrating the depth of intellectual exchange between Jewish and Islamic cultures in medieval Iberia.
