In the introduction to this work R. Bahya divides the obligations incumbent upon the religious man into duties of the members of the body (hovot ha-evarim), those obligations which involve overt actions; and duties of the hearts (hovot ha-levavot), those obligations which involve not man's actions, but his inner life. The first division includes the various ritual and ethical observances commanded by the Torah, e.g., the observance of the Sabbath, prayer, and the giving of charity, while the second consists of beliefs, e.g., the belief in the existence and unity of G-d, and attitudes or spiritual traits, e.g., trust in G-d, love and fear of H-im, and repentance. The prohibitions against bearing a grudge and taking revenge are also examples of duties of the hearts. R. Bahya explains that he wrote this work because the duties of man's inner life had been sorely neglected by his predecessors and contemporaries whose writings had concentrated on religious observances, that is, the duties of the members of the body. To remedy this deficiency Bahya wrote his work, which may be considered a kind of counterpart to the halakhic compendia of his predecessors and contemporaries. Just as their halakhic compendia contained directions for the actions of the religious man, so Bahya's work contained directions for his inner life. Hovot ha-Levavot was translated into Hebrew by R. Judah ibn Tibbon in 1161, and it became popular and has had a profound influence on all subsequent Jewish pietistic literature. Several abridgments were made of the Hebrew translation, and the work was translated into Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Yiddish. In more recent times it has been translated into English (1962), German (1856), and French (1950).

יצא חוברות-חוברות. עם הסכמת ר' זלמן ב"ר אברהם טיקטין, ברעסלויא, ח טבת תקצ"ה, שנדפסה שוב בשינויים קלים ובהשמטת התאריך בראש החוברת השנייה [השער השני: שער הבחינה] והקדמות המבאר והמתרגם לל"א [לשון אשכנז] והמתרגם ללה"ק [לשון הקודש: ר' יהודה אבן-תבון]. דף [11-10] מספירת הדפים האחרונה: תוכחה לרבינו בחיי. עם שער-נוסף למחברת הראשונה: חובת הלבבות אדער מאראליש - פהילאזאפישע אבהאנדלונג איבער דיא איננערן פפליכטען דעס מענשען. אויס דעם העברעאישען איבערזעטצט אונד ערקלעהרט פאן רפאל בר"י פירשטענטהאל. ערסטעס העפט. דען שער היחוד, אדער אבהאנדלונג איבער דיא איינהייט גאטטעס ענטהאלטענד. מקור ותרגום (גרמנית באותיות עבריות) בעמודות מקבילות ובשולי העמודים ה"באור" בעברית.