No. 105 of 124 · A Name of God · The Long Healing Prayer

The Best Lover

Of all who love, God loves most completely, and in this prayer we dare to call on that love by name.

I call on Thee O the Most Trusted, O the Best Lover, O Lord of the Dawn! Thou the Sufficing, Thou the Healing, Thou the Abiding, O Thou Abiding One! Bahá'u'lláh, The Long Healing Prayer · read the full prayer

What “The Best Lover” means

What follows reflects on this 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 name God 'The Best Lover' is to say something almost startling in its intimacy. It places divine love not in the abstract but in relationship, a love that is not merely adequate or even generous, but surpassing every other love we have ever known or imagined. The word 'best' carries weight here: it implies that there are other lovers, other forms of care and devotion in the world, and yet this One exceeds them all. Human love, even at its most faithful and selfless, remains partial, prone to fatigue, sometimes tangled in misunderstanding. God's love, by contrast, is described in the Bahá'í teachings as the very source from which all other love flows.

There is something quietly radical about a prayer that invites us to approach the Creator of the universe in such personal terms. Many traditions speak of God's power, God's knowledge, God's justice, and those names matter enormously. But 'The Best Lover' draws us into a different register entirely: the register of the heart. It suggests that the force holding existence together is not cold or indifferent but warmly, actively oriented toward each soul. To meditate on this name is to sit with the possibility that we are genuinely, particularly, unfailingly loved, not as a sentimental comfort, but as a spiritual reality that can reshape how we understand our own worth and our relationship to others.

In the context of the prayer, this name appears alongside 'The Most Trusted' and 'Lord of the Dawn,' which gives it a kind of dawn-light quality, love that breaks through darkness, that can be relied upon to return. It also sits near names like 'The Sufficing' and 'The Healing,' grounding divine love not in sentiment alone but in something capable of meeting real needs. When love is truly the best, it does not abandon the beloved in their hour of need; it is present precisely then.

Calling on The Best Lover for healing

When illness, grief, or exhaustion strips away the usual supports we lean on, what remains at the center can feel frighteningly bare. Calling on God as The Best Lover in those moments is an act of trust, a willingness to believe that the love at the heart of existence has not looked away from you. This name invites you to come to prayer not only as a petitioner presenting a request, but as someone who is already held. You might find it helpful to simply rest with this name for a time before speaking any other words, letting its meaning settle: the best love, aimed at you, right now.

Of course, no name, no prayer, and no devotional practice replaces the care of physicians and other healers, the Bahá'í teachings are clear that medicine is a gift and that seeking competent medical help is itself an expression of wisdom and gratitude. What this name offers is a companion to that practical care: a reminder that healing, in its fullest sense, touches more than the body. It reaches into the places where we feel unseen, unworthy, or unloved, and meets us there. Turning to The Best Lover in prayer is not a claim to any particular outcome, but an opening of the self to a love whose nature and purposes we hold in trust, with humility.

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In the Bahá'í Writings

Questions about The Best Lover

Why does the Long Healing Prayer call God 'The Best Lover', isn't that an unusual way to speak of God?

It can feel surprising to modern ears, but addressing God with the language of love and intimate relationship has deep roots in many spiritual traditions. In the Bahá'í context, love is understood as the most fundamental of divine qualities, the source from which all other bounties pour. Calling God 'The Best Lover' is less about romance and more about the quality of devotion: complete, unwavering, and exceeding anything a human being could offer. It is an invitation to understand the divine relationship with each soul as genuinely personal and caring.

Can reciting this prayer heal my illness?

The Bahá'í teachings encourage both prayer and the use of medicine, treating them as complementary rather than competing. Reciting the Long Healing Prayer is a meaningful spiritual practice, but it does not carry any guarantee of physical cure, and no responsible devotional resource should suggest otherwise. If you are dealing with an illness, please consult a qualified physician alongside whatever spiritual practices sustain you. The prayer is perhaps best understood as a way of drawing close to God and entrusting your wellbeing, in all its dimensions, to divine wisdom and love.

How is 'The Best Lover' different from other names of God that emphasize love, like 'The All-Loving'?

Each divine name in the prayer illuminates a slightly different facet of one inexhaustible reality. 'The All-Loving' speaks to the scope of God's love, its reach across all creation without exception. 'The Best Lover,' by contrast, speaks to quality and degree: not just that God loves, but that this love surpasses every other form of love in depth, faithfulness, and perfection. Together, the names build a portrait of a love that is both universal in its embrace and unsurpassed in its character.

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