Bahá'u'lláh describes The Hidden Words as a distillation of the spiritual guidance contained in the successive Revelations of God.

Shoghi Effendi called it Bahá'u'lláh's pre-eminent ethical work. The Hidden Words is written in the form of a collection of short aphorisms in which Baháʼu'lláh claims to have taken the basic essence of certain spiritual truths and written them in brief form.

Baháʼís are advised by ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, Baháʼu'lláh's son and the authorized interpreter of his teachings, to read them every day and every night and to implement their latent wisdom into their daily lives. He also said that The Hidden Words is "a treasury of divine mysteries" and that when one ponders its contents, "the doors of the mysteries will open.