No. 32 of 124 · A Name of God · The Long Healing Prayer
The All-Knowing One
When we call on God as the All-Knowing One, we place ourselves before a presence that sees us completely, every hidden ache, every unspoken fear, every flicker of hope.
I call on Thee O Ruling One, O Self-Subsisting, O All-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 · Knowing
1. Skilful; well informed; intelligent; as, a knowing man; a knowing dog. The knowing and intelligent part of the world. South. 2. Artful; cunning; as, a knowing rascal. [Colloq.] Knowledge; hence, experience. " In my knowing." Shak. This sore night Hath trifled former knowings. Shak.
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-Knowing One” 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 name 'The All-Knowing One' points to a quality of awareness that is nothing like the ordinary knowledge we humans accumulate through study or experience. Our knowing is partial, assembled piece by piece, full of gaps. God's knowing, by contrast, is total and immediate, not gathered from outside but inherent to what God is. It is the kind of awareness that does not need to search, because nothing is hidden from it in the first place.
This matters enormously when we sit with the reality of sickness or suffering. So much of what makes illness hard is the feeling of being unseen or misunderstood, by doctors who are still searching for answers, by loved ones who want to help but cannot quite grasp what we are going through, or even by our own minds when we cannot name what is wrong. The All-Knowing One is a name that speaks directly into that loneliness. It says: there is no corner of your condition, physical or spiritual, that lies outside God's awareness.
Theologically, the Bahá'í understanding holds that we can only ever approach the attributes of God, such as this all-encompassing knowledge, through the light those attributes cast into the world and into our own souls. We cannot fully define or contain what divine omniscience is in its essence. But we can turn toward it, trust it, and find in it a profound source of steadiness. To call on God by this name is to acknowledge that whatever we ourselves do not know about our situation, God does.
Calling on The All-Knowing One for healing
When you are ill and the path forward is unclear, when test results are ambiguous, when the mind is clouded, when the spirit feels frayed, calling on the All-Knowing One can be an act of genuine relief. You are not pretending to have answers you do not have. You are not forcing certainty. You are simply turning toward the One whose knowledge is complete and saying, in effect: I do not fully understand what is happening in my body or my soul, but You do. There is rest in that. This name invites a kind of surrender that is not passivity but trust, the trust that your condition, in all its complexity, is fully held within a knowing that surpasses any physician's, any specialist's, your own.
It is worth saying clearly: calling on this name is not a substitute for medical care. If you are unwell, please seek out competent physicians and follow sound medical guidance, that is itself a form of wisdom and self-respect. The All-Knowing One works through the material world as well as the spiritual. What this name offers alongside medical care is an interior anchor: the quiet assurance that even what the doctors have not yet discovered, even what you yourself cannot articulate about your suffering, is already known. You are not navigating in the dark alone. Healing, in whatever form it comes and in whatever measure it comes, unfolds within the awareness of a God who sees you whole.
Also sought as: all-knowing god in bahá'í prayer · god who knows all things · omniscient name of god bahá'í · long healing prayer all-knowing · lawh-i-anta'l-kafi names of god · god's complete knowledge healing prayer · divine omniscience bahá'u'lláh · all-knowing one healing prayer bahá'í · bahá'í prayer for the sick god's knowledge · god who sees all suffering.
Living the Word
Applying The All-Knowing One in your life
A name of God is a virtue to grow into. Where is The All-Knowing One 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 →“7 Knowing God, therefore, means the comprehension and knowledge of His attributes and not of His Reality. And even this knowledge of His attributes extends only so far as human power and capacity permit, and remains wholly inadequate. Philosophy consists in comprehending, so far as human power permits, the realities of things as they are in themselves. The originated reality has no recourse but to comprehend the pre-existent attributes within the intrinsic limits of human capacity. The invisible realm of the Divinity is sanctified and exalted above the comprehension of all beings, and all that can be imagined is mere human understanding. The power of human understanding does not encompass the reality of the divine Essence: All that man can hope to achieve is to comprehend the attributes of the Divinity, the light of which is manifest and resplendent in the world and within the souls of men.”
Read in full at bahai.org →“God Is the Great Compassionate Physician Who Alone Gives True Healing October 19th All true healing comes from God! There are two causes for sickness, one is material, the other spiritual. If the sickness is of the body, a material remedy is needed, if of the soul, a spiritual remedy. If the heavenly benediction be upon us while we are being healed then only can we be made whole, for medicine is but the outward and visible means through which we obtain the heavenly healing. Unless the spirit be healed, the cure of the body is worth nothing. All is in the hands of God, and without Him there can be no health in us! There have been many men who have died at last of the very disease of which they have made a special study. Aristotle, for instance, who made a special study of the digestion, died of a gastric malady. Avicenna was a specialist of the heart, but he died of heart disease. God is the great compassionate Physician who alone has the power to give true healing. All creatures are dependent upon God, however great may seem their knowledge, power and independence.”
Read in full at bahai.org →Questions about The All-Knowing One
- Why does the healing prayer invoke God as 'The All-Knowing One' rather than just asking for a cure directly?
- The prayer addresses many attributes of God, not only those most obviously linked to healing, and this seems intentional. Calling on God as the All-Knowing One acknowledges that healing is not a mechanical transaction but a relationship with a God who understands our condition far more deeply than we do ourselves. It shifts the posture of prayer from demand to trust.
- Does 'The All-Knowing One' mean God knows I will recover?
- This name speaks to the completeness of God's awareness, not to a predetermined outcome we can read in advance. We reflect on divine knowledge as a source of comfort and trust, but we do not treat it as a way to predict what will happen. Bahá'í teaching emphasizes that outcomes rest with God's wisdom, which we may not fully comprehend.
- How is God's knowledge different from human knowledge according to Bahá'í understanding?
- Human knowledge is acquired gradually through effort, study, and experience, and it always remains incomplete. Divine knowledge, as reflected in Bahá'í thought, is not accumulated from outside but is inherent, it is simply part of what God is. We can point toward this quality through language, but it ultimately exceeds our full comprehension.
- Can I use this name as a focus for personal meditation or reflection outside of reciting the full prayer?
- Many Bahá'ís find that sitting quietly with a name or attribute of God can deepen their sense of connection and inner peace. There is no prescribed rule against meditating on a particular name. How you engage with these names personally is a matter of your own spiritual practice and inner life.
Listen to, recite, and reflect on the whole prayer, its more than one hundred names of God.
Hear the Long Healing Prayer