No. 42 of 124 · A Name of God · The Long Healing Prayer
The Almighty
When we call on The Almighty, we are turning toward the one Power that underlies every force in existence, and placing our need, however great, within hands capable of holding it.
I call on Thee O Almighty, O Succoring One, O Concealing 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 · Almighty
1. Unlimited in might; omnipotent; all-powerful; irresistible. I am the Almighty God. Gen. xvii. 1. 2. Great; extreme; terrible. [Slang] Poor Aroar can not live, and can not die,
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 Almighty” 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 word 'almighty' carries the sense of power that has no ceiling, strength that is not borrowed, not depleted, and not dependent on any outside source. When this name appears in the Long Healing Prayer, it is not an abstract theological claim. It is an address, a direct turning of the heart toward One whose capacity to act is simply without limit. In Arabic devotional tradition, the root concepts behind divine might speak to a sovereignty that pervades all levels of existence, from the vastness of the cosmos down to a single struggling soul. Nothing that exists has any strength except what flows, moment by moment, from this inexhaustible source.
What distinguishes calling God 'The Almighty' from merely calling something powerful is the completeness of it. Human power, whether physical, intellectual, or social, is always relative, always comparative, always shadowed by the possibility of its own failure. The might invoked in this name belongs to a different order entirely. It is the power that brings worlds into being and sustains them, the power behind the processes that physicians study and medicines attempt to channel. This is why the name carries such weight in a healing context: the one being addressed is not simply the strongest force among many, but the ground of all force.
There is also something humbling and, paradoxically, something deeply comforting in this name. To stand before The Almighty is to acknowledge honestly how small and contingent we are, yet that acknowledgment does not crush us. It orients us. When we know who holds the real power, we can stop exhausting ourselves pretending we do. The prayer's invocation of this name is an act of honest surrender, the kind that clears the way for trust.
Calling on The Almighty for healing
When illness arrives, in the body, in the mind, or deep in the spirit, one of its cruelest effects is the feeling of powerlessness. Pain, uncertainty, and fear can make the world feel smaller and smaller until it seems to consist of nothing but the problem itself. Calling on The Almighty in the Long Healing Prayer is one way of deliberately expanding that contracted horizon. It is a way of reminding the praying heart that the force capable of addressing this situation is not limited as we are limited, not baffled as physicians can sometimes be baffled, not exhausted as caregivers grow exhausted. None of this is a claim that any particular outcome will follow. The Writings are clear that healing, when it comes through prayer, comes according to divine wisdom and not according to our own timetable or preferences. But turning toward this name can shift something in a person even before any outward change appears.
It is worth holding two things together when calling on this name: a genuine trust in the power of God, and a genuine commitment to seeking competent medical care. These are not in tension. The almighty source of all healing works through the physical world and through the knowledge of skilled physicians as much as through any other channel. Using this name in prayer is not a substitute for medicine, it is the spiritual dimension of a whole and integrated response to illness. You might sit quietly with this name before a difficult appointment, or return to it during a sleepless night, or breathe it slowly when pain or fear rises. Let it do what it does: widen the space inside you, and remind you that you are not alone with something too large to carry.
Also sought as: almighty god in bahai prayer · al-qadir healing prayer · divine power long healing prayer · bahai names of god almighty · omnipotent god bahai writings · lawh-i-anta'l-kafi names of god · bahai healing prayer divine might · names of god in bahai prayer · the almighty bahai devotional · sovereign power healing prayer bahai.
Living the Word
Applying The Almighty in your life
A name of God is a virtue to grow into. Where is The Almighty 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
“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 →“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 →Questions about The Almighty
- What does it mean that God is called 'The Almighty' specifically in a healing prayer?
- Invoking divine might in the context of healing acknowledges that illness can confront us with a sense of helplessness that feels absolute. The name 'The Almighty' places that helplessness against an entirely different kind of power, one that is not overcome by any condition, physical or otherwise. It is less a claim about guaranteed outcomes and more an orientation of trust toward the one source that is never exhausted.
- Should I rely on prayer alone when I am sick, since the prayer calls on The Almighty?
- The Bahá'í Writings are consistent on this point: material ailments call for material remedies, and spiritual ones for spiritual remedies, and ideally both dimensions are addressed together. Calling on The Almighty in prayer and seeking the care of a qualified physician are complementary, not competing, responses to illness. Prayer opens the heart and aligns the spirit; medicine works through the physical means that exist within creation.
- Is 'The Almighty' the same as the Arabic name Al-Qadīr?
- Several Arabic divine names touch on different facets of power, Al-Qadīr (the All-Powerful), Al-Qahhār (the All-Subduing), Al-'Azīz (the Mighty), among others. The precise Arabic behind each English phrase in the Long Healing Prayer is worth exploring in authoritative translations. What matters devotionally is that the concept being invoked is the absolute, sovereign power of God, whatever the specific root term used in the original text.
- Can meditating on this name of God help with emotional or spiritual suffering, not just physical illness?
- Yes, the Long Healing Prayer and the Bahá'í Writings generally treat healing as encompassing body, mind, and spirit together. Feelings of powerlessness, despair, or spiritual desolation are real forms of suffering, and turning the attention toward a power that is genuinely unlimited can be a meaningful source of consolation and reorientation. This is a personal reflection, not a doctrinal ruling, but many people find that dwelling on a name like The Almighty loosens the grip that fear and helplessness can have on the inner life.
Listen to, recite, and reflect on the whole prayer, its more than one hundred names of God.
Hear the Long Healing Prayer