No. 63 of 124 · A Name of God · The Long Healing Prayer
The All-Compelling
When everything feels beyond our control, this name reminds us that there is One whose sovereignty over all things is absolute and undiminished.
I call on Thee O All-Compelling, O Ever-Abiding, O Most Knowing One! Thou the Sufficing, Thou the Healing, Thou the Abiding, O Thou Abiding One! Bahá'u'lláh, The Long Healing Prayer · read the full prayer
Plain meaning · Compelling
from “compel”: 1. To drive or urge with force, or irresistibly; to force; to constrain; to oblige; to necessitate, either by physical or moral force. Wolsey . . . compelled the people to pay up the whole subsidy at once. Hallam. And they compel one Simon . . . to bear his cross. Mark xv. 21. 2. To take by force or violence; to seize; to exact; to extort. [R.] Commissions, which compel from each The sixth part of his substance. Shak. 3. To force to yield; to overpower; to subjugate. Easy sleep their weary limbs compelled. Dryden. I compel all creatures to my will. Tennyson. 4. To gather or unite in a crowd or company. …
Definition from Webster's Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain). When these Writings were translated into English, the translator relied on Webster's New International Dictionary, 1934 edition, of the same Webster's tradition. source
What “The All-Compelling” means
The meaning above is the plain dictionary definition of the word. What follows reflects on it as a name of God, offered for your own contemplation, and not as an authoritative interpretation of the Bahá'í Writings, which rests with ‘Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi alone.
The All-Compelling points to a divine authority that is not merely strong or influential but truly irresistible, a sovereignty that operates at the very root of existence. Whatever compels things to be, to move, to change, to endure: the Bahá'í understanding is that this ultimate compelling force belongs to God alone. It is not coercion in any human sense, but something closer to the foundational pull that keeps a universe in motion and a soul oriented toward its source.
There is something quietly staggering about this name when you sit with it. Human power compels only so far, and always conditionally, a leader's authority depends on followers, a force depends on resistance to push against. The All-Compelling implies no such dependency. It suggests a sovereignty that does not negotiate with circumstances or wait for conditions to be favorable. Things happen because God wills them, and nothing that is willed is ultimately preventable.
At the same time, this is not a cold or mechanical dominion. In the devotional context of this prayer, The All-Compelling stands alongside names like the Healing and the Sufficing, it is the compelling will of a God who is also intimately present to the human soul. The force evoked here is not the force of an indifferent cosmos but of a living, caring Reality whose absolute power serves absolute love.
Calling on The All-Compelling for healing
When illness has stripped away the feeling that we have any say over our own lives, calling on The All-Compelling can be a strange and genuine comfort. It reframes the situation: our helplessness is real, but it is held within a helplessness that belongs to a larger order, one in which the One who is truly in command is also the One we are addressing in prayer. To say this name is not to bypass medical care or to pretend that suffering does not hurt. It is to place the whole situation, including the doctors, the treatments, the uncertainty, and the fear, inside a sovereignty that is trustworthy even when it is not fully legible to us.
Practically speaking, you might return to this name slowly in moments when anxiety about outcomes becomes overwhelming. The awareness that no outcome is outside God's knowledge or beyond God's reach can loosen the grip of that particular fear. This is not a promise that things will resolve the way we hope, healing is always held in the wisdom and will of God, not guaranteed by any prayer or practice, but it is an invitation to rest, however briefly, in the recognition that the most compelling force in existence is not the disease, not the diagnosis, and not the fear. Please do continue to work closely with qualified healthcare professionals; prayer and medicine are companions, not rivals.
Also sought as: the all-compelling name of god · all-compelling bahai prayer · lawh-i-anta'l-kafi names of god · long healing prayer names · bahai healing prayer divine names · god the compelling bahai · divine sovereignty healing prayer · names of god in bahai healing prayer · all-compelling meaning bahai · bahai prayer for healing names.
Living the Word
Applying The All-Compelling in your life
A name of God is a virtue to grow into. Where is The All-Compelling being asked of you right now, and how will you practice it? Keep a short note each time you return, and watch your own path with this name take shape over time. It stays on this device.
In the Bahá'í Writings
“5 For example, the mind and the spirit of man are aware of all his states and conditions, of all the parts and members of his body, and of all his physical sensations, as well as of his spiritual powers, perceptions, and conditions. This is an existential knowledge through which man realizes his own condition. He both senses and comprehends it, for the spirit encompasses the body and is aware of its sensations and powers. This knowledge is not the result of effort and acquisition: It is an existential matter; it is pure bounty. 6 Since those sanctified realities, the universal Manifestations of God, encompass all created things both in their essence and in their attributes, since They transcend and discover all existing realities, and since They are cognizant of all things, it follows that Their knowledge is divine and not acquired—that is, it is a heavenly grace and a divine discovery.”
Read in full at bahai.org →“21.1That which the Lord hath ordained as the sovereign remedy and mightiest instrument for the healing of all the world is the union of all its peoples in one universal Cause, one common Faith. This can in no wise be achieved except through the power of a skilled, an all-powerful and inspired Physician. This, verily, is the truth, and all else naught but error. 22.1Beware, O believers in the Unity of God, lest ye be tempted to make any distinction between any of the Manifestations of His Cause, or to discriminate against the signs that have accompanied and proclaimed their Revelation. This indeed is the true meaning of Divine Unity, if ye be of them that apprehend and believe this truth. Be ye assured, moreover, that the works and acts of each and every one of these Manifestations of God, nay whatever pertaineth unto them, and whatsoever they may manifest in the future, are all ordained by God, and are a reflection of His Will and Purpose.”
Read in full at bahai.org →“‘Say, all is from God’ is a sound and sufficient argument, and ‘if God toucheth thee with a hurt there is no dispeller thereof save Him’ is a healing medicine.””
Read in full at bahai.org →Questions about The All-Compelling
- Why does a healing prayer invoke a name like The All-Compelling rather than just a name about mercy or love?
- The Long Healing Prayer draws on a wide range of divine names precisely because healing touches every dimension of existence, not just our longing for comfort, but our confrontation with forces that seem overwhelming and beyond our control. The All-Compelling addresses that confrontation directly, affirming that whatever power illness seems to wield, it does not exceed the sovereignty of God. Mercy and love are present too, in other names throughout the same prayer, and together they form a more complete picture of the One being called upon.
- Does calling on The All-Compelling mean I should accept illness and stop seeking treatment?
- Not at all. The Bahá'í writings consistently encourage consulting skilled physicians and taking care of the body as a trust. Turning to God in prayer and pursuing competent medical care are seen as complementary, not contradictory. Acknowledging God's ultimate sovereignty does not mean becoming passive; it means bringing our full effort and our uncertainty alike into the presence of God.
- Is this name unique to the Long Healing Prayer, or does it appear elsewhere in the Bahá'í writings?
- Divine names appear throughout Bahá'í scripture in many different prayers and tablets, and several overlap with names found in Islamic devotional tradition. The Long Healing Prayer gathers a remarkable concentration of these names into a single extended invocation, which is part of what gives it its distinctive spiritual texture. Whether this exact phrasing appears identically elsewhere is a question best explored through the primary texts themselves.
- How do I pronounce 'All-Compelling' in the original Arabic or Persian context of this prayer?
- The Long Healing Prayer was revealed by Bahá'u'lláh in Arabic. The name rendered in English as The All-Compelling corresponds to a divine attribute in that original tongue, though translators have made careful choices in rendering the nuance into English. For the pronunciation and original script, consulting the authorized editions of Bahá'í prayers or resources from the Bahá'í Reference Library would give you the most reliable guidance.
Listen to, recite, and reflect on the whole prayer, its more than one hundred names of God.
Hear the Long Healing Prayer