A Sufi-Jewish Dialogue: Philosophy and Mysticism in Bahya ibn Paquda's Duties of the Heart »

Diana Lobel is Associate Professor of Religion at Boston University. She is the author of Between Mysticism and Philosophy: Sufi Language of Religious Experience in Judah Ha-Levi's Kuzari.

In A Sufi-Jewish Dialogue, Diana Lobel explores the full extent to which Duties of the Heart marks the flowering of the "Jewish-Arab symbiosis," the interpenetration of Islamic and Jewish civilizations.

Preface     ix
Introduction: Bahya's Work in Its Judeo-Arabic Context     1
Philosophical Mysticism in Eleventh-Century Spain: Bahya and Ibn Gabirol     21
On the Lookout: The Exegesis of a Sufi Tale     35
Creation     51
The One     66
Speaking about God: Divine Attributes, Biblical Language, and Biblical Exegesis     96
The Contemplation of Creation (I'tibar)     117
Wholehearted Devotion (Ikhlas): Purification of Unity (Ikhlas al-Tawhid), Purification of Intention in Action (Ikhlas al-'Amal)     146
Reason, Law, and the Way of the Spirit     177
The Spirituality of the Law     196
Awareness, Love, and Reverence (Muraqaba, Mahabba, Hayba/Yir'ah)     219
List of Abbreviations     243
Notes     245
Bibliography     323
Index     345
Acknowledgments     361