No. 1 of 124 · A Name of God · The Long Healing Prayer
The Healer
Of all the names invoked in this prayer, none lands closer to the heart of why we turn to it in the first place.
He is the Healer, the Sufficer, the Helper, the All-Forgiving, the All-Merciful. Bahá'u'lláh, The Long Healing Prayer · read the full prayer
Plain meaning · Healer
One who, or that which, heals.
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 Healer” 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 name 'The Healer' points to something more than a doctor's skill or a medicine's chemistry. It gestures toward a source of restoration that underlies every form of mending, the idea that wholeness, at its deepest level, originates in God. When Bahá'u'lláh places this name at the head of a cluster of divine qualities in the Long Healing Prayer, it feels less like a title and more like an address: a way of turning directly toward the one Being whose nature is, at its root, restorative.
There is a breadth to this name worth sitting with. Healing in the Bahá'í understanding is never purely physical. It can move through the body, yes, but also through grief, through confusion, through the slow fractures that accumulate in a life. To call God 'The Healer' is to acknowledge that all of these broken places fall within the scope of divine care, that no wound is too obscure or too interior to be beyond the reach of this name.
The name also carries a certain humility for the one reciting it. It relocates the source of healing outside our own effort or cleverness. This is not a passive idea, it does not discourage medicine, skilled care, or human ingenuity. Rather, it places those things in a larger frame, suggesting that whatever healing arrives through any channel is, in some sense, an expression of this one name doing its work in the world.
Calling on The Healer for healing
When you are the one who is sick, or when you are sitting beside someone who is, the name The Healer can function as a kind of anchor. You are not invoking a vague cosmic force; you are addressing a quality that Bahá'u'lláh himself chose to name, to pray with, and to place in the hands of those who would come after him in their hours of need. There is dignity in that. You can bring whatever is most broken, a body in pain, a mind in disorder, a spirit that has gone quiet, and hold it up to this name without needing to predict what the answer will look like.
It is worth being honest with yourself that calling on The Healer is an act of trust, not a transaction. The Bahá'í writings are clear that healing, when it is right for the person, will be granted, and that wisdom sometimes moves in directions we cannot anticipate from where we stand. This is not a cold comfort, it is an invitation to a deeper kind of surrender than we usually manage on our own. Alongside prayer, please do seek the care of qualified physicians and mental health professionals. This name does not ask you to choose between the sacred and the practical; it asks you to hold both.
Also sought as: the healer in the long healing prayer · bahá'u'lláh prayer for healing name of god · divine healer bahá'í prayer · lawh-i-anta'l-kafi healer · god as healer bahá'í · names of god in bahá'í healing prayer · bahá'í prayer for the sick healer · spiritual healing bahá'í divine name · long healing prayer names of god explained · he is the healer the sufficer bahá'í.
Living the Word
Applying The Healer in your life
A name of God is a virtue to grow into. Where is The Healer 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 →“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 →“O 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. O handmaid of God! The power of the Holy Spirit healeth both physical and spiritual ailments. O handmaid of God! It is recorded in the Torah: And I will give you the valley of Achor for a door of hope. This valley of Achor is the city of ‘Akká, and whoso hath interpreted this otherwise is of those who know not.”
Read in full at bahai.org →Questions about The Healer
- Does calling God 'The Healer' in this prayer mean I will be cured?
- The prayer is an act of turning toward God in trust, not a guarantee of a specific physical outcome. The Bahá'í writings speak gently but clearly about this: healing comes when it is right for the person, and divine wisdom sometimes works in ways that are not immediately visible to us. Praying the Long Healing Prayer is a meaningful and encouraged practice, and it is also fully consistent with seeking competent medical care.
- Is 'The Healer' only about physical illness?
- Not at all. Within the Bahá'í understanding, healing encompasses the body, the mind, and the spirit. The name The Healer is broad enough to hold all of these, chronic illness, emotional pain, spiritual dryness, relational wounds. Many people find the Long Healing Prayer meaningful even when their struggle is not primarily physical.
- Can I say this prayer on behalf of someone else who is ill?
- Many Bahá'ís do pray on behalf of loved ones who are suffering, and this is a natural expression of care and intercession. The Long Healing Prayer lends itself to this kind of compassionate use. Holding someone's name or face in mind as you recite it is a quietly beautiful practice, even if the outcome remains in God's hands.
- Why does Bahá'u'lláh pair 'The Healer' with 'The Sufficer' and 'The Helper' in this line?
- These names seem to be placed together intentionally, each one opening a slightly different facet of what we need when we are unwell. The Healer names the restorative quality; The Sufficer reassures us that God is enough; The Helper acknowledges our dependence. Together they form something like a complete shelter, not just healing, but the sufficiency and active assistance that make healing possible. Reflecting on each name individually can be a rich part of working with the prayer.
Listen to, recite, and reflect on the whole prayer, its more than one hundred names of God.
Hear the Long Healing Prayer