No. 68 of 124 · A Name of God · The Long Healing Prayer
The Magnanimous One
In calling upon The Magnanimous One, we turn toward a God whose giving knows no limit and whose mercy outruns every need we bring.
I call on Thee O Magnificent One, O Ancient of Days, O Magnanimous 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 · Magnanimous
1. Great of mind; elevated in soul or in sentiment; raised above what is low, mean, or ungenerous; of lofty and courageous spirit; as, a magnanimous character; a magnanimous conqueror. Be magnanimous in the enterprise. Shak. To give a kingdom hath been thought Greater and nobler done, and to law down Far more magnanimousan to assume. Milton. 2. Dictated by or exhibiting nobleness of soul; honorable; noble; not selfish. Both strived for death; magnanimous debate. Stirling. There is an indissoluble union between a magnanimous policy and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity. Washington.
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 Magnanimous 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.
Magnanimity, at its core, describes a greatness of spirit that rises above pettiness, grievance, and scarcity. A magnanimous person gives freely, forgives readily, and holds nothing back out of spite or calculation. When this quality is ascribed to God, it points toward something that dwarfs even the most generous human heart, a source of grace so vast that no sincere reaching toward it returns empty-handed.
In the context of the Long Healing Prayer, this name appears alongside 'The Magnificent One' and 'The Ancient of Days,' a clustering that is worth sitting with. Magnificence speaks to God's grandeur and splendor; Ancient of Days evokes an eternal, unhurried permanence; and Magnanimous One brings both of those qualities into direct, generous contact with the person praying. It is as if the prayer is saying: this immense, timeless Power is not remote or indifferent, it bends toward you with open hands.
The word itself traces back through Latin to a combination meaning 'great soul.' There is something quietly moving in that etymology when we apply it to the divine. To speak of God as the Great-Souled One is to suggest that every attribute we most admire in the noblest human beings, patience, liberality, the refusal to keep score, exists in God without bound, without exhaustion, and without condition.
Calling on The Magnanimous One for healing
When illness, grief, or inner fracture brings us to the edge of what we can carry alone, the name The Magnanimous One offers a particular kind of solace. It invites us to approach God not with the anxious calculation of someone who fears they have not earned enough or asked too much, but with the trust of someone who knows the one they are petitioning delights in giving. You are not using up a quota of divine attention when you pray. You are turning toward a generosity that cannot be depleted.
Calling on this name does not bypass the ordinary, necessary work of healing, consulting physicians, following sound medical advice, accepting the support of loved ones. Rather, it holds all of that effort within a larger and gentler frame. Whatever the outcome of an illness or struggle, the Magnanimous One is understood to be present in the process, not merely waiting at the finish line. Healing of spirit, the easing of fear, the return of some measure of peace, the sense of not being abandoned, can begin even before the body mends, and this name is a doorway into precisely that kind of inner restoration.
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Living the Word
Applying The Magnanimous One in your life
A name of God is a virtue to grow into. Where is The Magnanimous 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
“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 →“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 →“The essentials of the divine religion are one reality, indivisible and not multiple. It is one. And when through investigation we find it to be single, we have a basis for the oneness of the world of humanity. I will pray for you, asking confirmation and assistance in your behalf.”
Read in full at bahai.org →Questions about The Magnanimous One
- What does it mean to call God 'The Magnanimous One' in a healing prayer?
- It is an act of trust more than a transaction. To address God by this name is to acknowledge that the one you are turning to is characterized by a greatness of spirit that exceeds any smallness in your own petition. It shifts the mood of prayer from anxious bargaining toward open, expectant receiving, while leaving the nature and timing of what is received entirely in God's hands.
- Is this name unique to the Long Healing Prayer?
- The attribute of divine magnanimity appears across many religious and spiritual traditions, though the specific invocation in this particular sequence belongs to Bahá'u'lláh's Lawḥ-i-Anta'l-Káfí. Each line of the prayer clusters several names of God together, and studying those groupings can be a rich devotional practice in itself.
- Can reciting this prayer cure a serious illness?
- The Bahá'í teachings encourage both prayer and the use of competent medical care, treating them as complementary rather than competing. Prayer is not presented as a substitute for professional treatment, and no specific outcome can be promised to anyone. If you or someone you love is seriously ill, please seek qualified medical attention alongside any spiritual practice.
- How might I meditate on this name outside of formal prayer?
- One simple approach is to let the word 'magnanimous' rest quietly in your mind during an ordinary moment, while walking, waiting, or lying still before sleep. Notice what images or feelings it calls up, and gently redirect those associations toward their divine source. Many people find that savoring a single name of God in this unhurried way opens something that more hurried recitation sometimes passes over.
Listen to, recite, and reflect on the whole prayer, its more than one hundred names of God.
Hear the Long Healing Prayer