No. 53 of 124 · A Name of God · The Long Healing Prayer
The Bountiful One
In calling upon The Bountiful One, we turn toward a God whose giving knows no ceiling and no condition.
I call on Thee O Perfecting One, O Unfettered One, O Bountiful 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 · Bountiful
1. Free in giving; liberal in bestowing gifts and favors. God, the bountiful Author of our being. Locke. 2. Plentiful; abundant; as, a bountiful supply of food. Syn.
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 Bountiful One” 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.
Bounty, at its root, is not simply about receiving gifts. It points to something more like an overflowing nature, a source that gives not because it has been asked, but because giving is what it is. When Bahá'u'lláh addresses God as The Bountiful One, the name carries that sense of inexhaustible generosity woven into the very character of the divine. It is not a generosity that runs dry or grows selective, but one that extends to every corner of existence simply because existence itself is sustained by it.
There is something quietly humbling about this name. It reminds us that everything we have, our capacity to think, to love, to hope, even to pray, arrived as a gift before we had a chance to earn it or ask for it. Bounty in this sense is prior to merit. It is the ground we already stand on, often without noticing. Sitting with this name invites a kind of gratitude that goes deeper than saying thank you for a specific thing; it is more like waking up to the fact that the whole of life has been, in some profound way, given.
Different traditions have described divine generosity through images of rain falling on parched earth, light pouring from a sun that does not ration its warmth, or a spring that rises without being pumped. Each image tries to capture the same quality: a goodness that moves outward naturally, without calculation. The Bountiful One, as a name of God, holds all of these images together and points beyond them, toward something we can sense at the edges of our understanding even when we cannot fully grasp it.
Calling on The Bountiful One for healing
When someone is sick, or exhausted, or grieving, the word 'bountiful' can feel very far away. It may even feel like a reproach, if God is so generous, why does this hurt so much? That tension is real, and it deserves to be held honestly rather than explained away. But calling on The Bountiful One in the midst of difficulty is not a claim that everything is fine; it is more like reaching a hand toward a source that is still there even when we cannot see it clearly. It is an act of trust that the divine generosity we have experienced before has not been withdrawn, even if the form it takes right now is not the one we would have chosen.
Healing, of the body, the mind, the spirit, involves so many factors that no name, no prayer, and no practice can be reduced to a formula or a guaranteed outcome. Physicians, therapists, and other skilled caregivers are themselves instruments of care, and consulting them is not a failure of faith but an embrace of the very resources that exist in the world. What calling on The Bountiful One offers is a particular quality of inner orientation: an openness, however tentative, to receiving what is being given, including strength to endure, clarity to make wise decisions, and the quiet companionship of a God who is not stingy with mercy.
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Living the Word
Applying The Bountiful One in your life
A name of God is a virtue to grow into. Where is The Bountiful One 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
“All creatures that exist are dependent upon the Divine Bounty. Divine Mercy gives life itself. As the light of the sun shines on the whole world, so the Mercy of the infinite God is shed on all creatures. As the sun ripens the fruits of the earth, and gives life and warmth to all living beings, so shines the Sun of Truth on all souls, filling them with the fire of Divine love and understanding. The superiority of man over the rest of the created world is seen again in this, that man has a soul in which dwells the divine spirit; the souls of the lower creatures are inferior in their essence. There is no doubt then, that of all created beings man is the nearest to the nature of God, and therefore receives a greater gift of the Divine Bounty.”
Read in full at bahai.org →“31.1As to you, O ye other handmaids who are enamoured of the heavenly fragrances, arrange ye holy gatherings, and found ye Spiritual Assemblies, for these are the basis for spreading the sweet savours of God, exalting His Word, uplifting the lamp of His grace, promulgating His religion and promoting His Teachings, and what bounty is there greater than this? These Spiritual Assemblies are aided by the Spirit of God. Their defender is ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Over them He spreadeth His wings. What bounty is there greater than this? These Spiritual Assemblies are shining lamps and heavenly gardens, from which the fragrances of holiness are diffused over all regions, and the lights of knowledge are shed abroad over all created things. From them the spirit of life streameth in every direction. They, indeed, are the potent sources of the progress of man, at all times and under all conditions. What bounty is there greater than this?”
Read in full at bahai.org →“However, when we ponder carefully it will be observed that these unceasing trials and afflictions, these successive ordeals, though they break one’s back, crush one’s strength, and exhaust one’s endurance, are among the greatest gifts of God, the Ever-Living, the All-Powerful, for He thereby accepteth the self-sacrifice which certain souls are prompted to make in His path, enabling them to attire their heads with the glorious crown of martyrdom and to establish themselves upon the throne of everlasting sovereignty. Such hath ever been the qualification of them that enjoy near access unto God, such are the attributes of the pure in heart.”
Read in full at bahai.org →Questions about The Bountiful One
- Does calling God 'The Bountiful One' mean I should expect my illness to be healed?
- This name points to the unlimited generosity of God's nature, not to a specific promise about a particular outcome. Healing is held in trust with divine wisdom, which means we may receive it in forms we did not anticipate, renewed courage, deeper peace, or clearer understanding, alongside, or sometimes instead of, physical recovery. Medical care remains important, and prayer and medicine are generally understood in the Bahá'í Faith as companions, not competitors.
- Is 'The Bountiful One' a common name for God across religions?
- The quality of divine generosity appears in many traditions, Al-Karīm (the Generous) in Islam, concepts of grace and lovingkindness in Christianity and Judaism, and ideas of cosmic abundance in various Eastern philosophies. Each tradition shapes the idea differently, but the thread running through them is a God or ultimate reality that gives freely. The Bountiful One in the Long Healing Prayer belongs to this broad family of names while carrying its own specific resonance within the Bahá'í writings.
- What does it mean practically to meditate on this name?
- One approach is simply to sit quietly with the name and let it settle, noticing what it stirs, perhaps gratitude, perhaps longing, perhaps skepticism. Another is to look back over your day or your life and try to identify moments of unexpected gift: a kindness offered, a difficulty that opened something new, a small beauty you almost missed. The name is less a technique than an invitation to reorient attention toward generosity as a fundamental quality of reality.
Listen to, recite, and reflect on the whole prayer, its more than one hundred names of God.
Hear the Long Healing Prayer