No. 19 of 124 · A Name of God · The Long Healing Prayer
The Most Wise
When human understanding reaches its limit, a deeper wisdom holds everything in its hands.
I call on Thee O Omniscient, O Most Wise, O Most Great 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 · Wise
1. Having knowledge; knowing; enlightened; of extensive information; erudite; learned. They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge. Jer. iv. 22. 2. Hence, especially, making due use of knowledge; discerning and judging soundly concerning what is true or false, proper or improper; choosing the best ends and the best means for accomplishing them; sagacious. When clouds appear, wise men put their cloaks. Shak. From a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation. 2 Tim. iii. 15. 3. …
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 Most Wise” 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 Most Wise' points to a quality of God that is not simply intelligence at a very high degree, it is wisdom of an entirely different order. Human wisdom is earned slowly through experience, study, and the correction of mistakes. Divine wisdom, as understood in the Bahá'í writings, is inherent, complete, and unconditioned by time. It sees the full arc of a life, a soul, a world, in a single encompassing awareness. When we invoke this name, we are acknowledging that the One we are turning to genuinely knows what we cannot.
There is something quietly humbling about this name. The word 'most' does real work here, it is not 'somewhat wise' or 'very wise' but the superlative, the outermost reach of the quality. And yet wisdom, unlike raw power, carries the texture of care. A wise person does not merely know; they know what matters, and they act from that knowledge with discernment and love. In calling God 'The Most Wise,' the prayer seems to invite us into a posture of trust rather than demand, an openness to understanding that we may not yet possess.
It is worth noticing where this name appears in the prayer's sequence. It stands alongside 'Omniscient,' 'Most Great,' 'the Sufficing,' 'the Healing,' and 'the Abiding.' Wisdom is placed in the company of knowledge, greatness, sufficiency, healing, and permanence. This clustering suggests that healing, whatever form it takes, is not random or arbitrary in God's economy. It unfolds within an order shaped by a wisdom that sees further than any single moment of pain or petition.
Calling on The Most Wise for healing
When we are sick, frightened, or bewildered by what is happening in our bodies or our inner lives, one of the hardest things to hold onto is the sense that any of it makes sense. Pain has a way of narrowing the world down to itself. Calling on God as 'The Most Wise' in those moments is not a tidy solution to that bewilderment, it is more like reaching for a hand in the dark. We are not claiming to understand why things are as they are. We are choosing to place our situation before a wisdom greater than our own, and to remain open to outcomes we could not have designed ourselves. This is a genuinely courageous act of the spirit.
It is always wise, in the most practical sense, to seek out skilled medical care when the body is suffering. The two paths, the outward and the inward, are not rivals. Calling on The Most Wise in prayer, and also trusting the knowledge of a thoughtful physician, reflects the same underlying conviction: that we are not left alone with our illness. The healing prayer itself holds no guarantee of a particular outcome, and honest reflection on the Bahá'í writings suggests this is by design. What is promised is not a specific cure but the presence of a God whose wisdom encompasses even the outcomes that confuse or grieve us.
Also sought as: the most wise in the long healing prayer · al-hakim in bahá'í prayer · god as the most wise bahá'í · divine wisdom healing prayer bahá'u'lláh · lawh-i-anta'l-kafi the most wise · names of god in the healing prayer · most wise name of god bahá'í · bahá'í prayer for healing wisdom · omniscient most wise healing prayer · trusting god's wisdom in illness bahá'í.
Living the Word
Applying The Most Wise in your life
A name of God is a virtue to grow into. Where is The Most Wise 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
“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 →“15.3O handmaid of God! The prayers which were revealed to ask for healing apply both to physical and spiritual healing. Recite them, then, to heal both the soul and the body. If healing is right for the patient, it will certainly be granted; but for some ailing persons, healing would only be the cause of other ills, and therefore wisdom doth not permit an affirmative answer to the prayer. 15.4O handmaid of God! The power of the Holy Spirit healeth both physical and spiritual ailments. Acquiring Divine Virtues”
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 Most Wise
- Does calling God 'The Most Wise' in this prayer mean my healing is guaranteed if I pray sincerely?
- The Bahá'í writings are clear that healing prayers apply to both physical and spiritual healing, and that outcomes rest in God's wisdom rather than in the intensity of our petition. Sincerity in prayer is genuinely valued, but the writings also acknowledge that what is healing for one person might not be the right answer for another in a given moment. Trusting 'The Most Wise' means releasing the outcome into a larger understanding than our own, rather than expecting a predetermined result.
- Should I stop seeing my doctor and rely on this prayer instead?
- Not at all, and the spirit of the Bahá'í writings actively discourages this kind of either-or thinking. Seeking competent medical care is considered part of responsible stewardship of one's health. Prayer and medicine work on different dimensions of a person's wellbeing and are best understood as complementary rather than competing. Please do consult a qualified physician for medical concerns.
- Why is 'The Most Wise' placed so close to 'The Healing' in this line of the prayer?
- That proximity feels deeply intentional, even if we cannot claim to know exactly what Bahá'u'lláh meant by the arrangement. Placing wisdom immediately before healing seems to suggest that healing, in its fullest sense, flows from wisdom rather than from chance or raw power alone. It quietly frames every act of healing as something purposeful, held within an understanding larger than our own.
Listen to, recite, and reflect on the whole prayer, its more than one hundred names of God.
Hear the Long Healing Prayer