No. 25 of 124 · A Name of God · The Long Healing Prayer
The Cherished One
To call God 'The Cherished One' is to discover that the longing we feel toward the Divine is, astonishingly, met by a love that flows back toward us.
I call on Thee O Beloved One, O Cherished One, O Enraptured 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 · Cherished
from “cherish”: 1. To treat with tenderness and affection; to nurture with care; to protect and aid. We were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children. 1 Thess. ii. 7. 2. To hold dear; to embrace with interest; to indulge; to encourage; to foster; to promote; as, to cherish religious principle. To cherish virtue and humanity. Burke. 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 Cherished 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.
The word 'cherished' carries a quality of tender, deliberate holding. To cherish something is not simply to value it from a distance but to keep it close, to treat it with care that never grows careless. When this name is offered to God, it turns that movement around in a striking way: we are not the ones doing the cherishing, we are addressing the Divine itself as the being who is most worthy of being cherished, the One toward whom all love, at its most refined, eventually points.
There is something quietly revolutionary in this name. Much religious language emphasizes the vastness and power of the Divine, attributes that can inspire awe and even a degree of holy distance. 'The Cherished One' does something different. It names God as the object of the heart's deepest affection, the one presence that, once glimpsed, the soul refuses to let go of. The name suggests an intimacy between the seeker and the sought, a relationship more like devotion between two who know each other than like a subject approaching a throne.
It is worth noticing where this name sits in the prayer, clustered with 'Beloved One' and 'Enraptured One' in a single breath. Together these names paint a picture of spiritual love at its most intense: a soul so moved by God that ordinary words give way to words borrowed from the vocabulary of longing and delight. Calling God 'The Cherished One' in this context is less a theological proposition than an act of the heart, a confession that nothing else holds this place.
Calling on The Cherished One for healing
When a person is suffering, whether from physical illness, the quiet erosion of grief, or a spirit worn thin by prolonged difficulty, it can feel as though the world has grown cold and impersonal. Turning to God as 'The Cherished One' in those moments is an act of radical reorientation. It is a way of saying: there is still something I care about beyond the pain, and that something cares about the whole of me in return. The name does not bypass the reality of suffering; it places suffering inside a relationship rather than leaving it out in the open alone.
Healing of any kind, and the Bahá'í writings are clear that real healing involves both the body and the spirit, and that competent medical care belongs to that process, unfolds in ways we cannot always predict or control. Sitting with this name in prayer is not a technique for producing a particular outcome. It is more like turning toward a warmth you trust even when you cannot feel it clearly. You are not bargaining with a distant force; you are reaching toward One you hold dear, trusting that to be cherished in return is not a feeling you have to earn but a reality already in place, waiting to be received.
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Living the Word
Applying The Cherished One in your life
A name of God is a virtue to grow into. Where is The Cherished 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
“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 →“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 →“5 For example, the mind and the spirit of man are aware of all his states and conditions, of all the parts and members of his body, and of all his physical sensations, as well as of his spiritual powers, perceptions, and conditions. This is an existential knowledge through which man realizes his own condition. He both senses and comprehends it, for the spirit encompasses the body and is aware of its sensations and powers. This knowledge is not the result of effort and acquisition: It is an existential matter; it is pure bounty. 6 Since those sanctified realities, the universal Manifestations of God, encompass all created things both in their essence and in their attributes, since They transcend and discover all existing realities, and since They are cognizant of all things, it follows that Their knowledge is divine and not acquired—that is, it is a heavenly grace and a divine discovery.”
Read in full at bahai.org →Questions about The Cherished One
- Why does the Long Healing Prayer address God with names like 'The Cherished One' rather than asking for healing directly?
- The prayer moves through many names and attributes of God before and alongside its petitions, and this reflects a broader spiritual principle: drawing close to God in recognition and love is itself part of what healing means, not merely a prelude to it. Addressing God as 'The Cherished One' orients the whole heart toward the Divine rather than focusing narrowly on a desired outcome. It is an expression of relationship, not just a request.
- Does calling on 'The Cherished One' mean I should not seek medical treatment?
- Not at all. 'Abdu'l-Bahá taught clearly that material ailments call for material remedies, and that medicine and spiritual healing work together rather than in opposition. Reciting this prayer and consulting qualified physicians are complementary acts, not competing ones. The prayer addresses the spirit and the whole person; a doctor addresses the body, both forms of care belong together.
- What is the difference between God as 'The Beloved' and God as 'The Cherished One' in this prayer?
- These names shade into each other and are invoked almost in the same breath, which suggests they are meant to be felt together rather than sharply distinguished. If 'Beloved' points to the intensity of longing and attraction, 'Cherished' adds a note of tender, careful holding, something protected and precious rather than only desired. Together they evoke a love that is both ardent and gentle, which may be why the prayer places them side by side.
- Can I use this name on its own outside the context of the full prayer?
- Many people find that resting with a single divine name in quiet reflection or meditation is a meaningful practice, and there is nothing in the Bahá'í teachings that would discourage thoughtful, reverent engagement with the names of God on their own. That said, experiencing the name within the full sweep of the Long Healing Prayer also has its own power, as the surrounding names and phrases build a cumulative atmosphere of trust and love.
Listen to, recite, and reflect on the whole prayer, its more than one hundred names of God.
Hear the Long Healing Prayer