Torah Commentary

Dear Friends,

Once again I am requesting a scan from a book that is inaccessible to me on account of the coronavirus.

Dear Jacob,

Thanks for a fascinating question! Here are my findings and comments on your query.

This is a very typical "Sufi hadith" (i.e., put in the mouth of the Prophet or perhaps other prominent individuals, but not reported or not considered authentic by the standard collections of sound or good hadiths). I quickly found references to it in many places; most of the Islamic websites quote authorities denying that it is an authentic hadith, although Bahya would presumably have known about it from Sufi sources, not from Bukhari or Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj. And many Muslims argue that the meaning is consistent with Scripture (i.e. Quran) even if the ascription to Muhammad is unfounded.

Bahya Ben Asher “Know your soul and you will know your God":

For this hadith and its influence in Jewish and Islamic circles see the magisterial study by Alexander Altmann, The Delphic Maxim in Medieval Islam and Judaism, in: Biblical and Other Studies, ed. by A. Altmann (Cambridge., Mass. 1963): 196-232.