A Comparative Study of Asceticism from the Viewpoint of Khawaja Abdullah Ansari in "Waystations of the Travelers" and Bahya ben Joseph ibn Paquda in "Duties of the heart"

As a moral virtue and one of the pivotal principles and sources of Sufism, asceticism has been of special interest to Khawaja Abdullah Ansari (396-481 AH), a Muslim mystic, as shown in his book " Waystations of the Travelers " and Bahya ben Joseph ibn Paquda Ansari's contemporary Jewish mystic, as shown in " The Guidance to the Obligatory Duties of the heart". They have included it among the discussions of spiritual journey. The findings of this study which is based on comparative descriptive method show that these two mystics differ about the position, description and classification od asceticism despite sharing views about its definition. Khawaja hold that asceticism is ranked sixteenth the hundred waystations of among the spiritual journey towards the unity of God, while Ibn Baquda sees that it is ranked the ninth among the ten gates to divine love. Khawaja's spiritual journey in founded on the Book and narrations, and the degrees of asceticism according are classified in his brief exposition to the rank of wayfares into three types: lawful, moral, and gnostic, However Ibn Baquda explains and evaluates reason, narration, the book, and Islamic sources, in the form of a detailed explanation, with a moral view and by laying emphasis on the criterion of lawful moderation.