No. 38 of 124 · A Name of God · The Long Healing Prayer
The Hidden from all
At the heart of this prayer rests a name that stops the mind in its tracks: the God who surpasses every concept we could ever form of Him.
I call on Thee O Thou Frequented by all, O Thou Known to all, O Thou Hidden from all! 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 · Hidden
from Hide. Concealed; put out of view; secret; not known; mysterious. Hidden fifths or octaves (Mus.), consecutive fifths or octaves, not sounded, but suggested or implied in the parallel motion of two parts towards a fifth or an octave. Syn.
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 Hidden from all” 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 breathtaking about calling on a God who is, by His very nature, beyond being found. 'The Hidden from all' is not a name that describes absence or remoteness in the way we might feel distant from a friend. It points instead to a kind of absolute transcendence, the idea that the divine Essence is so utterly beyond the created world that no mind, however brilliant or sincere, can reach it directly. Every image we form, every concept we attach to the word 'God,' falls short of the Reality itself. This name invites us to hold our own understanding very lightly.
What makes this name so striking is the company it keeps in the prayer. In the same breath, God is called 'Frequented by all' and 'Known to all', and then immediately 'Hidden from all.' These three names together suggest not a contradiction but a layered truth: God is the most present reality there is, recognized in some way by every heart that has ever longed for something greater, and yet His innermost nature remains forever beyond the reach of human comprehension. The hiddenness is not a wall He has built to keep us out; it is simply what infinity looks like from the inside of a finite mind.
Across many spiritual traditions, thinkers and mystics have grappled with this same paradox, the God who is closer to us than our own breath and yet impossibly, gloriously beyond description. In the Bahá'í writings this tension is not resolved away; it is honored. We are encouraged to know God through His attributes, through His Manifestations, through the signs of His grace in the world, but the Essence Itself remains, as this name declares, hidden from all. That includes the wisest scholars and the most devoted believers. There is a deep equality in that hiddenness.
Calling on The Hidden from all for healing
When we are suffering, whether in body, mind, or spirit, we often want answers. We want to understand why, to see the shape of what is happening to us, to feel that someone with full knowledge is in charge. Calling on 'The Hidden from all' in the middle of that longing is a courageous act. It is an admission that we do not and cannot see the whole picture, paired with a choice to trust the One who does. There is a kind of relief available in that surrender, not the relief of having our questions answered, but the relief of no longer needing them answered right now. We place ourselves before a Reality vaster than our pain.
This name does not offer a formula or a guarantee. Healing, in all its forms, remains in the hands of a God whose ways are not fully transparent to us, and that is exactly what this name acknowledges. If you find yourself praying with this name, you might sit for a moment with the honest admission that you do not know how or when or whether things will shift, and let that not-knowing become part of the prayer itself. Alongside this inner work, please do seek out qualified medical care for any physical illness; the hiddenness of God is not a reason to withhold practical help from yourself or someone you love. The two paths, prayer and medicine, walk together.
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Living the Word
Applying The Hidden from all in your life
A name of God is a virtue to grow into. Where is The Hidden from all 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
“3.1Knowing 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 →“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 →“To 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.”… The door of the knowledge of the Ancient of Days being thus closed in the face of all beings, the Source of infinite grace, according to His saying, “His grace hath transcended all things; My grace hath encompassed them all,” hath caused those luminous Gems of Holiness to appear out of the realm of the spirit, in the noble form of the human temple, and be made manifest unto all men, that they may impart unto the world the mysteries of the unchangeable Being, and tell of the subtleties of His imperishable Essence.”
Read in full at bahai.org →Questions about The Hidden from all
- If God is hidden from all, why bother calling on Him in prayer?
- The hiddenness the prayer names is about the divine Essence, the innermost nature of God, not about God's responsiveness or care. The same passage calls God 'Frequented by all' and 'Known to all' in the same breath, suggesting that while the Essence transcends our grasp, God's grace and presence are not withdrawn from us. Prayer, in this light, is less about fully understanding who we are addressing and more about turning our hearts toward the source of all healing and existence.
- Does this name mean God is unknowable in every sense?
- In the Bahá'í understanding, it is the innermost Essence of God that lies beyond human comprehension, not God's attributes or the signs of His grace in the world. We can come to know qualities like compassion, power, and beauty as they are reflected in creation and in the lives of the Manifestations of God. What remains permanently hidden is the divine Reality in and of itself, which is simply beyond the scope of any created mind.
- Can meditating on 'The Hidden from all' help with anxiety or mental distress?
- Many people find that sitting with this name loosens the grip of the need to control or to understand everything, which can be a source of real relief in anxious states. It is a gentle reminder that we were never expected to have all the answers. That said, if you are experiencing significant mental or emotional distress, please reach out to a qualified mental health professional; prayer and professional support work best as companions, not substitutes for each other.
- Why does the prayer place 'Hidden from all' right next to 'Known to all'?
- This pairing seems to reflect a layered understanding of God's relationship with creation, simultaneously the most intimately present reality and the most ultimately beyond reach. Rather than treating these as opposites that cancel each other out, the prayer holds them together as complementary truths. It is a way of saying that our knowing of God, however real and precious, always rests on a foundation of mystery far deeper than we can fathom.
Listen to, recite, and reflect on the whole prayer, its more than one hundred names of God.
Hear the Long Healing Prayer