No. 27 of 124 · A Name of God · The Long Healing Prayer
The Mightiest One
When every human resource feels small, this name turns the heart toward a strength that nothing in creation can exceed.
I call on Thee O Mightiest One, O Sustaining One, O Potent 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 · Mightiest
from “mighty”: 1. Possessing might; having great power or authority. Wise in heart, and mighty in strength. Job ix. 4. 2. Accomplished by might; hence, extraordinary; wonderful. "His mighty works." Matt. xi. 20. 3. Denoting and extraordinary degree or quality in respect of size, character, importance, consequences, etc. "A mighty famine." Luke xv. 14. "Giants of mighty bone." Milton. Mighty was their fuss about little matters. Hawthorne. A warrior of great force and courage. [R. & Obs.] 1 Chron. xi. 12. In a great degree; very. [Colloq.] "He was mighty methodical." Jeffrey. We have a mighty pleasant garden. Doddridge.
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 Mightiest 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.
To call God 'The Mightiest One' is to acknowledge that all power, without exception, has its source and ceiling in the Divine. Human strength, physical, intellectual, institutional, is real and worth celebrating, yet it is always borrowed, always partial, always subject to limits it did not set for itself. This name names the One in whom no such limit exists. It is not simply that God is very strong; the word 'mightiest' carries the sense of an absolute, a superlative that closes off all comparison. Nothing stands above it.
There is something quietly steadying about a name like this. It does not ask us to pretend that difficulties are small. Rather, it invites us to place whatever is enormous in our lives, illness, grief, uncertainty, fear, beside a power that dwarfs it entirely. The name does not diminish what we suffer; it reorients where we look. And looking toward an unbounded might, we find it is not cold or indifferent. In the same breath of this prayer, the same Being is called Sustaining, Sufficing, Healing, Abiding, might wrapped in care.
Across religious traditions, human beings have long sensed that the universe is held by something greater than its visible forces. 'The Mightiest One' is Bahá'u'lláh's way of naming that intuition precisely and devotionally, not as a philosophical abstraction but as a living reality one can address directly, lean on, and trust.
Calling on The Mightiest One for healing
When we or someone we love is ill, one of the quiet agonies is the feeling of powerlessness. Bodies don't always respond the way we want them to. Treatments work partially, or slowly, or not at all. In those moments, calling on The Mightiest One is not a bypass around medical care, quite the opposite, it is worth remembering that skilled physicians and the medicines they prescribe are part of the fabric of a God-given world, and consulting them is both wise and important. But alongside that practical care, this name offers something medicine alone cannot supply: the assurance that the final word on what is possible belongs to a might no diagnosis can overrule.
Sitting with this name in prayer, a person might simply hold their need, whatever it is, bodily or emotional or spiritual, and consciously release the illusion that healing depends only on what human hands can do. That is not passivity; it is a particular kind of trust. It leaves outcomes in a wisdom greater than our own, which means it can coexist honestly with uncertainty. No one should take this or any prayer as a guarantee of a specific cure; the healing that comes may look different from what we imagined, and that, too, is held within the scope of a might that sees further than we do.
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Living the Word
Applying The Mightiest One in your life
A name of God is a virtue to grow into. Where is The Mightiest 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 →“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 →“I implore Thee, therefore, by Thy name through which Thou didst manifest Thy Godhead, and didst exalt Thy Cause above all creation, and by each of Thy most excellent titles and most august attributes, and by all the virtues wherewith Thy transcendent and most exalted Being is extolled, to send down this night from the clouds of Thy mercy the rains of Thy healing upon this suckling, whom Thou hast related unto Thine all-glorious Self in the kingdom of Thy creation. Clothe him, then, O my God, by Thy grace, with the robe of well-being and health, and guard him, O my Beloved, from every affliction and disorder, and from whatsoever is obnoxious unto Thee. Thy might, verily, is equal to all things. Thou, in truth, art the Most Powerful, the Self-Subsisting. Send down, moreover, upon him, O my God, the good of this world and of the next, and the good of the former and latter generations. Thy might and Thy wisdom are, verily, equal unto this.”
Read in full at bahai.org →Questions about The Mightiest One
- Does calling God 'The Mightiest One' mean healing will definitely happen if I pray sincerely?
- This name points to God's unlimited power, but the Bahá'í understanding is that healing, and the form it takes, rests in divine wisdom, not simply in the force of our petition. A sincere prayer is never wasted, yet the outcome is held in trust rather than guaranteed. For any medical concern, please work with qualified healthcare professionals alongside your spiritual practice.
- Why is 'The Mightiest One' placed right next to names like 'The Sustaining One' and 'The Healing One' in the prayer?
- The grouping seems to do something very deliberate: it prevents might from feeling remote or impersonal. Power that also sustains, suffices, and heals is power oriented toward the creature, not away from it. Together these names paint a picture of a strength that is simultaneously vast and intimately caring, which is exactly the combination a person in need of healing most requires.
- Is there an authoritative Bahá'í interpretation of what each name in the Long Healing Prayer means?
- Authoritative interpretation in the Bahá'í Faith belongs to 'Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi. The reflections on this website are devotional and exploratory in nature, offered as a companion to your own prayerful reading rather than as official doctrine. We encourage you to bring your own heart and questions to the text.
- Can non-Bahá'ís use or benefit from reflecting on this prayer?
- The Long Healing Prayer is a Bahá'í sacred text, and Bahá'ís recite it as part of their devotional life. At the same time, Bahá'u'lláh's writings are considered a gift to all humanity, and anyone drawn to explore them is welcome to do so with an open and respectful spirit.
Listen to, recite, and reflect on the whole prayer, its more than one hundred names of God.
Hear the Long Healing Prayer