No. 20 of 124 · A Name of God · The Long Healing Prayer
The Most Great One
When every other magnitude falls short, this name points beyond measure itself.
I call on Thee O Omniscient, O Most Wise, O Most Great 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 · Great
1. Large in space; of much size; big; immense; enormous; expanded;
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 Most Great 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 name 'The Most Great One' carries a kind of finality to it. Greatness, in ordinary life, is always relative, one mountain is greater than another, one achievement surpasses a previous one. But when Bahá'u'lláh calls upon God as the Most Great One, the comparison has nowhere left to go. This is not greatness on a spectrum. It is greatness that underlies and exceeds every scale we could construct to measure it. There is something quietly staggering in that, if we let it settle.
In the context of the Long Healing Prayer, this name appears alongside other names, the Omniscient, the Most Wise, the Sufficing, the Healing, the Abiding, and together they form a kind of portrait of the divine reality we are turning toward. Each name illuminates a different facet. 'The Most Great One' speaks to sheer scope: the God we address in prayer is not a localized or limited presence but the source and summit of all that exists. Our needs, however vast they feel to us, are held within something vaster still.
There is also a humbling comfort in this name. If God is truly the Most Great One, then nothing we bring to prayer, no illness, no grief, no confusion, is too large for that greatness to encompass. And equally, nothing is so small as to fall beneath its notice. Greatness of this order is not distant grandeur; it is the ground in which even the smallest life is rooted.
Calling on The Most Great One for healing
When we are unwell, whether in body, in mind, or in spirit, our world can contract. Pain and worry have a way of making everything feel close and pressing and small. Calling on God as the Most Great One is a gentle act of reorientation. It does not deny the reality of what we are suffering. It simply places that suffering inside a larger frame. We are saying, in effect: I acknowledge a greatness beyond my trouble, and I am turning toward it. That turning is itself a form of healing, even before anything changes outwardly. It is worth remembering, too, that consulting a qualified physician is a natural and encouraged part of caring for the body, prayer and medicine are not in competition; they work in different registers of the same human need.
Calling on the Most Great One also invites us to release the grip of our own judgment about what healing should look like or when it should arrive. We may have strong feelings about outcomes, and those feelings are understandable and human. But the Most Great One sees from a vantage point we simply do not have access to. Resting in that name is an act of trust, not passive resignation, but the active, open-handed faith of someone who has genuinely placed their care in hands larger than their own. The outcome remains in God's wisdom, held there with a greatness that our prayers reach toward but cannot fully circumscribe.
Also sought as: the most great one bahá'u'lláh · names of god long healing prayer · al-a'zam bahai prayer · most great god bahai · divine names healing prayer bahai · lawh-i-anta'l-kafi names of god · greatest name bahai healing · god's greatness bahai prayer · most great one meaning bahai · bahai prayer for healing divine names.
Living the Word
Applying The Most Great One in your life
A name of God is a virtue to grow into. Where is The Most Great 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 →“He is the All-Glorious. 1 O thou spiritual physician! The body of humankind was afflicted with severe ills and chronic diseases, contagious maladies and prolonged fevers. Whereupon the ocean of divine favour surged, and the clouds of truth and bounty rained down upon the world of creation. The Sun of the firmament of Oneness shone forth, and vivifying breezes wafted from the meads of Singleness. The breath of the divine Messiah was diffused, the All-Knowing Physician appeared from behind the veil, and the skilled and true Healer emerged unconcealed. He prepared wholesome medicines from hidden substances, and created healing balms from concealed and treasured elements. He bestowed the panacea of unfailing efficacy, and conferred the sovereign remedy for every ill. He blended together spiritual elixirs, and created refreshing draughts made with heavenly pearls and rubies. And from the essence of Divine Unity and the quintessence of singleness, He taught and made known to us remedies that purify and tranquillize and soothe.”
Read in full at bahai.org →Questions about The Most Great One
- Why does the Long Healing Prayer invoke so many different names of God?
- Each name of God in the prayer draws attention to a different aspect of the divine reality we are turning toward in our need. Together they build a rich, multifaceted address, not a formula, but a genuine act of reaching out to God as fully as language allows. Calling on 'The Most Great One' alongside names like 'The Healing' and 'The Sufficing' reminds us that the God we petition is both immeasurably great and intimately present to our specific condition.
- Does reciting the Long Healing Prayer guarantee physical recovery?
- No, and it would be unfaithful to the spirit of the prayer to suggest otherwise. The Bahá'í Writings themselves indicate that healing is given in accordance with divine wisdom, and that for some individuals, a particular form of healing might not serve their deeper good. The prayer is an act of trust and surrender to that wisdom, not a transactional guarantee. Seeking competent medical care remains an important and encouraged part of looking after one's health.
- What does 'Most Great' mean when applied to God rather than to a person or thing?
- When we call a person or achievement 'great,' we are placing them on a scale relative to others. Applied to God, 'Most Great' steps off that scale entirely, it points to a greatness that is not the top of a ranking but the source and condition of all magnitude. It is a way of saying that whatever greatness we can imagine, God exceeds and underlies it, which is both a philosophical claim and a deeply personal one for anyone in prayer.
- Can I use this name on its own as a focus for meditation or personal prayer?
- Many people find that sitting with a single divine name, turning it over quietly, letting its meaning open up, can be a meaningful contemplative practice. While the Long Healing Prayer is recited as a whole, there is nothing to prevent someone from bringing a particular name like 'The Most Great One' into their personal reflection as a way of deepening their understanding of and relationship with God. How individuals shape their private spiritual life is, ultimately, a personal matter.
Listen to, recite, and reflect on the whole prayer, its more than one hundred names of God.
Hear the Long Healing Prayer