No. 4 of 124 · A Name of God · The Long Healing Prayer
The All-Forgiving
In the same breath as healing and sufficiency, Bahá'u'lláh calls upon God as The All-Forgiving, reminding us that wholeness and pardon are never far apart.
He is the Healer, the Sufficer, the Helper, the All-Forgiving, the All-Merciful. Bahá'u'lláh, The Long Healing Prayer · read the full prayer
Plain meaning · Forgiving
Disposed to forgive; inclined to overlook offenses; mild; merciful; compassionate; placable; as, a forgiving temper.
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-Forgiving” 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-Forgiving points to a quality of God that is not reluctant or conditional in the way human forgiveness so often is. It suggests an inexhaustible willingness to release, to clear away, to begin again, not once or twice but as a fundamental characteristic of the divine nature itself. The Arabic root underlying this name carries a sense of covering over and protecting, the way a garment shields what lies beneath. There is something profoundly gentle in that image: not erasure exactly, but shelter and restoration of dignity.
What strikes many readers is that this name appears here not in a prayer specifically about sin or repentance, but in a prayer about healing. That placement feels intentional and revealing. Guilt, shame, and the weight of past wrongs are not separate from our suffering, they can live in the body as tension, in the mind as relentless self-criticism, in the spirit as a closed door. Naming God as All-Forgiving within a healing context quietly acknowledges that some wounds are carried inward for years and that the medicine for them is something only a supremely compassionate source can offer.
The word 'all' matters too. It does not say 'sometimes forgiving' or 'forgiving under certain circumstances.' The scope is total. This is not a name for a God who keeps a ledger, tallying up failures against merits. It is a name for a God whose capacity to forgive outstrips any human capacity to err, a ratio that may take a lifetime to fully trust, but which the prayer invites us to lean on right now, in this moment of need.
Calling on The All-Forgiving for healing
When someone comes to this prayer in a moment of physical illness, mental exhaustion, or spiritual desolation, the name The All-Forgiving can meet a need that other names do not quite reach. Many people carry into sickness an accompanying burden of self-blame, wondering whether they have brought suffering upon themselves, whether they are somehow unworthy of relief, whether past mistakes have narrowed the circle of divine care available to them. Calling upon The All-Forgiving is a way of setting that burden down, at least for the length of a prayer. It is a practiced act of trust: that whatever stands between a person and God's mercy has already been taken into account by a Forgiver whose generosity cannot be exhausted.
None of this replaces the practical and compassionate care of physicians, counselors, and the people who love us. Healing tends to come through many hands and many means, and we are encouraged to seek out competent medical guidance for any health concern. But the spiritual dimension of healing, the restoration of hope, the softening of self-condemnation, the renewed sense that one is held rather than judged, is real, and invoking The All-Forgiving in prayer is one way of opening toward that dimension. The outcome remains in God's wisdom, not ours to command. What we can do is approach that wisdom without shame, which is precisely what this name invites.
Also sought as: the all-forgiving in the long healing prayer · al-ghaffar meaning in bahai prayer · divine forgiveness bahai · god the all-forgiving bahai · lawh-i-anta'l-kafi names of god · forgiveness and healing in bahai faith · bahai healing prayer names of god · the forgiving the merciful bahai prayer · bahai prayer for forgiveness and healing · names of god in bahai healing prayer.
Living the Word
Applying The All-Forgiving in your life
A name of God is a virtue to grow into. Where is The All-Forgiving 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
““ever-forgiving, all-bounteous” God would forgive him his iniquities were he only to repent—all these further enrich the contents of a Book designated by its Author as “the source of true felicity,” as the “Unerring Balance,” as the “Straight Path” and as the “quickener of mankind.””
Read in full at bahai.org →““ever-forgiving, all-bounteous” God would forgive him his iniquities were he only to repent—all these further enrich the contents of a Book designated by its Author as “the source of true felicity,” as the “Unerring Balance,” as the “Straight Path,” and as the “quickener of mankind.””
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-Forgiving
- Why is 'The All-Forgiving' included in a healing prayer rather than a prayer for forgiveness?
- The pairing reflects a holistic understanding of what healing actually involves. Suffering, guilt, and spiritual estrangement are often intertwined, and a prayer that addresses the whole person naturally reaches toward forgiveness as part of the process of becoming well. The name appears alongside Healer, Sufficer, and Helper, together they paint a picture of a God who meets human need at every level, not just the physical.
- Does calling on The All-Forgiving mean my sins are automatically forgiven when I recite this prayer?
- Bahá'í teachings reserve authoritative interpretation for 'Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi, so it would not be appropriate to make a definitive ruling here. What can be said is that the Bahá'í writings consistently describe God's forgiveness as vast and responsive to sincere turning toward Him. Reciting this name with genuine attention and humility is a meaningful act of spiritual orientation, and the rest can be trusted to God's wisdom and mercy.
- Can this prayer heal depression or emotional wounds, not just physical illness?
- The Long Healing Prayer is traditionally understood to address wellbeing in a broad sense, and many people do turn to it in times of grief, anxiety, or spiritual difficulty. That said, prayer and professional mental health care are not in competition, if you are struggling with depression or emotional pain, please do reach out to a qualified counselor or physician. Spiritual practice can be a meaningful companion to that care, never a substitute for it.
- What is the Arabic name behind 'The All-Forgiving'?
- The name most directly associated with this meaning in the Islamic and Bahá'í devotional tradition is Al-Ghaffár, sometimes also rendered Al-Ghafúr. Both carry the sense of covering, protecting, and repeatedly forgiving. Al-Ghaffár emphasizes the intensely repeated, habitual nature of that forgiveness, it is something God does constantly and by nature, not occasionally and by exception.
Listen to, recite, and reflect on the whole prayer, its more than one hundred names of God.
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