No. 37 of 124 · A Name of God · The Long Healing Prayer
The Known to all
Nothing in creation is hidden from the One who knows all things, including every hidden ache, confusion, and longing within us.
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 · Known
of Know.
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 Known to 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.
To say that God is 'The Known to all' is to say something remarkable: this is not simply a name about God knowing us, but a name that points to God's reality being somehow present to and recognized by all of creation. Every creature, in its own measure, bears some innate orientation toward its Maker, a kind of existential awareness woven into the fabric of being itself. The name invites us to consider that our reaching toward the divine is not a one-way gesture into emptiness; it is a response to something already known, already luminous, already there.
There is a quietly comforting paradox nested in the trio of names that appears together in this line of the prayer: 'Frequented by all,' 'Known to all,' and 'Hidden from all.' God is simultaneously accessible and ineffable. This threefold naming seems to acknowledge that human beings sense and seek the divine even when they cannot articulate what they are sensing. The knowledge of God that 'The Known to all' gestures toward is not primarily an intellectual achievement, it is something closer to recognition, the way a person might feel at home in a landscape they have never consciously visited before.
In the context of prayer, meditating on this name can shift us from the anxiety of wondering whether our words are reaching anyone, to a quiet confidence that the One we address already knows the whole of our situation, not as a passive record-keeper, but as a living reality whose knowledge is itself a form of nearness. We do not have to explain ourselves completely before we can be heard.
Calling on The Known to all for healing
When illness, grief, or inner turmoil makes it hard to find words, calling on God as 'The Known to all' can itself become the prayer. There is relief in the thought that no symptom needs to be perfectly described, no wound perfectly named, no fear perfectly articulated, because the One you are addressing already holds full knowledge of your condition in a way no other person, and perhaps even you yourself, fully does. Bringing that awareness into your recitation of the Long Healing Prayer is not a passive act; it is an act of trust, a decision to rest your situation in hands whose knowledge of it exceeds your own.
That said, trusting in divine knowledge has never been understood in the Bahá'í writings as a reason to set aside the care of skilled physicians and healers. Seeking competent medical attention is itself an expression of wisdom and gratitude for the means God has placed in the world. The spiritual and the practical are companions on the path toward wholeness, not rivals. Calling on 'The Known to all' in prayer while also pursuing sound medical care reflects a wholeness of approach, addressing the full human being, body and soul, in every dimension that healing can touch.
Also sought as: known to all bahá'u'lláh healing prayer · god known to all bahai · names of god long healing prayer bahai · lawh-i-anta'l-kafi names of god · god who knows all things bahai prayer · divine omniscience bahai healing · god's knowledge of us bahai · bahai prayer for healing names of god · known to all hidden from all bahai · frequented known hidden bahai prayer.
Living the Word
Applying The Known to all in your life
A name of God is a virtue to grow into. Where is The Known to 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
“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 →“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 →“20.2Answer: Know that such ways, words, and deeds are to be lauded and approved, and they redound to the glory of the human world. But these actions alone are not sufficient: They are a body of the greatest beauty, but without a spirit. No, that which leads to everlasting life, eternal honour, universal enlightenment, and true success and salvation is, first and foremost, the knowledge of God. It is clear that this knowledge takes precedence over every other knowledge and constitutes the greatest virtue of the human world. For the understanding of the reality of things confers a material advantage in the realm of being and brings about the progress of outward civilization, but the knowledge of God is the cause of spiritual progress and attraction, true vision and insight, the exaltation of humanity, the appearance of divine civilization, the rectification of morals, and the illumination of the conscience.”
Read in full at bahai.org →Questions about The Known to all
- If God is already 'The Known to all,' why do we need to pray at all?
- Prayer in the Bahá'í understanding is not primarily about informing God of something God does not already know. It is more about the transformation that happens in us when we consciously turn toward the divine. The act of calling on God as 'The Known to all' is less about delivering news and more about choosing to stand openly in that relationship of knowing, which, many people find, changes the inner landscape of the one who prays.
- What does it mean that God is 'Known to all' and also 'Hidden from all' in the same breath?
- These two names appearing side by side reflect a tension that runs through mystical reflection across many traditions: the divine is somehow the most intimately present reality and yet utterly beyond full comprehension. In the Bahá'í writings, the essential reality of God is understood as beyond human grasp, and yet the attributes and signs of God permeate creation. 'Known to all' and 'Hidden from all' together honor both sides of that mystery without collapsing one into the other.
- Can reciting the Long Healing Prayer cure a physical illness?
- The Bahá'í writings encourage both prayer and the use of competent medical care, treating them as complementary rather than competing approaches to healing. Prayer is held to have real spiritual significance and value, but no specific outcome, including physical recovery, is guaranteed by reciting any prayer. If you or someone you love is dealing with illness, please do seek proper medical attention alongside any spiritual practice.
- Is this name saying that ordinary people have some innate knowledge of God?
- Reflecting on this name does seem to suggest that there is something in the makeup of human beings that reaches toward, recognizes, or responds to the divine, even before formal religious education or theological reflection. This orientation is understood not as full comprehension of God's nature, which is held to be beyond any creature's reach, but as a kind of built-in capacity for spiritual awareness and seeking. It is an encouraging thought: the search for God is already, in some sense, a response to being known.
Listen to, recite, and reflect on the whole prayer, its more than one hundred names of God.
Hear the Long Healing Prayer