No. 39 of 124 · A Name of God · The Long Healing Prayer
The Concealed One
To invoke the Concealed One is to stand humbly at the threshold of a mystery no mind can fully cross.
I call on Thee O Concealed One, O Triumphant One, O Bestowing 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 · Concealed
Hidden; kept from sight; secreted.
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 Concealed 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.
There is something quietly arresting about addressing God as 'The Concealed One.' Most of us reach toward God hoping to feel closeness, presence, even intimacy, and here the prayer names, without apology, the sheer hiddenness at the heart of the Divine. It is not a name that describes a God who is absent or indifferent, but one whose innermost reality is so far beyond the reach of created minds that concealment is simply the honest word for what we encounter when we reach the edge of our understanding.
In the Bahá'í writings, this idea is not treated as a disappointment but as a kind of reverence. The Divine Essence is understood to be so exalted, so wholly unlike anything we can imagine, that no human concept, not even the most luminous, can truly capture it. Every name we use, every image we form, every feeling we call 'knowing God' is a reflection cast into the world, not the Source itself. 'The Concealed One' holds that truth with great dignity: it refuses to flatten God into something manageable.
What makes this name particularly moving in a healing prayer is that it asks us to trust what we cannot see and cannot fully know. When we are sick, frightened, or broken, the impulse is to demand clarity, to know why, to know when, to know how it will end. Calling on the Concealed One gently redirects that impulse. It invites us to release our grip on an explanation and rest, instead, in a Presence whose wisdom operates in ways our understanding cannot audit. That is not resignation; it is a different and deeper kind of trust.
Calling on The Concealed One for healing
When illness or suffering drives us into prayer, we often want God to be transparent, to show us the plan, to make the path visible. The name 'The Concealed One' meets us in exactly that desire and softens it. Sitting with this name during the recitation of the Long Healing Prayer can become a practice of letting go: letting go of the need to understand the mechanism of healing, the timing of relief, or the reason behind the trial. It does not ask us to stop hoping; it asks us to hold our hope in open hands rather than clenched fists. This is a form of spiritual healing in itself, even before any physical outcome unfolds. Please also remember that caring for the body is part of caring for what God has entrusted to us, consulting qualified medical professionals is not a sign of weak faith but of wise stewardship.
There is also something consoling in naming the hiddenness directly. For many people in the middle of a health crisis, God can feel distant or silent, and that silence is its own kind of pain. To pray 'O Concealed One' is to acknowledge that experience honestly within the prayer itself, to say, in effect, 'I cannot see You clearly right now, and yet I am calling out.' That honesty has its own integrity. The prayer does not pretend the veil is not there; it speaks through the veil anyway, trusting that the One on the other side hears every word.
Also sought as: the hidden god in bahai prayer · concealed one long healing prayer · bahai name of god hidden · lawh-i-anta'l-kafi concealed one · god beyond knowing bahai · divine hiddenness bahai faith · bahai healing prayer names of god · unknowable essence bahai · concealed one healing prayer meaning · praying to a hidden god bahai.
Living the Word
Applying The Concealed One in your life
A name of God is a virtue to grow into. Where is The Concealed 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
“6.1The Person of the Manifestation hath ever been the representative and mouthpiece of God. He, in truth, is the Dayspring of God’s most excellent Titles, and the Dawning-Place of His exalted Attributes. If any be set up by His side as peers, if they be regarded as identical with His Person, how can it, then, be maintained that the Divine Being is one and incomparable, that His Essence is indivisible and peerless? Meditate on that which We have, through the power of truth, revealed unto thee, and be thou of them that comprehend its meaning. 7.1To every discerning and illumined heart it is evident that God, the unknowable Essence, the Divine Being, is immensely exalted beyond every human attribute, such as corporeal existence, ascent and descent, egress and regress. Far be it from His glory that human tongue should adequately recount His praise, or that human heart comprehend His fathomless mystery. He is, and hath ever been, veiled in the ancient eternity of His Essence, and will remain in His Reality everlastingly hidden from the sight of men. “No vision taketh in Him, but He taketh in all vision; He is the Subtile, the All-Perceiving.” …”
Read in full at bahai.org →“The Manifestations of God Attaining Knowledge of God 1.1Know that the reality of the Divinity and the nature of the divine Essence is ineffable sanctity and absolute holiness; that is, it is exalted above and sanctified beyond every praise. All the attributes ascribed to the highest degrees of existence are, with regard to this station, mere imagination. The Invisible and Inaccessible can never be known; the absolute Essence can never be described. For the divine Essence is an all-encompassing reality, and all created things are encompassed. The all-encompassing must assuredly be greater than that which is encompassed, and thus the latter can in no wise discover the former or comprehend its reality. No matter how far human minds may advance, even attaining the highest degree of human comprehension, the uttermost limit of this comprehension is to behold the signs and attributes of God in the world of creation and not in the realm of Divinity. For the essence and the attributes of the all-glorious Lord are enshrined in the inaccessible heights of sanctity, and human minds and understandings will never find a path to that station. “The way is barred, and all seeking rejected.””
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 →Questions about The Concealed One
- Why would a healing prayer address God as 'The Concealed One' rather than a name that feels more comforting?
- It may feel counterintuitive, but naming God's hiddenness is itself an act of honesty and reverence. The prayer does not ask us to pretend we have full understanding; it asks us to call out faithfully even when clarity is not available to us. Many people find that acknowledging the mystery, rather than avoiding it, actually deepens their sense of connection in prayer.
- Does calling God 'The Concealed One' mean God cannot help or does not respond to prayer?
- Not at all. In the Bahá'í understanding, the concealment refers to the inaccessibility of God's innermost Essence, not to God's awareness of or care for creation. The same line of the Long Healing Prayer also calls God 'The Triumphant One' and 'The Bestowing One,' names that speak of power and generosity. Concealment and responsiveness are held together, not set against each other.
- Is there a specific way I should meditate on this name while reciting the Long Healing Prayer?
- There is no prescribed method, and personal interpretation of spiritual practice is a deeply individual matter. Many people find it helpful simply to pause on the name, let it settle, and notice whatever arises, whether that is a feeling of awe, of uncertainty, or of quiet surrender. The prayer itself, recited with sincerity, carries its own momentum.
- Should I rely on this prayer instead of seeing a doctor?
- Prayer and medical care are not in competition in the Bahá'í outlook. Seeking treatment from qualified physicians is consistently encouraged in the Bahá'í writings, and the Long Healing Prayer is best understood as a spiritual companion to, not a replacement for, appropriate medical attention. Healing of the whole person, body, mind, and spirit, draws on both.
Listen to, recite, and reflect on the whole prayer, its more than one hundred names of God.
Hear the Long Healing Prayer