No. 93 of 124 · A Name of God · The Long Healing Prayer
The Most Lauded
When every word of praise falls short, we still reach toward the One whose glory outpaces all our naming.
I call on Thee O Most Lauded, O Most Holy, O Sanctified 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 · Lauded
from “laud”: 1. High commendation; praise; honor; exaltation; glory. "Laud be to God." Shak. So do well and thou shalt have laud of the same. Tyndals. 2. A part of divine worship, consisting chiefly of praise;
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 Lauded” 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 Most Lauded' points to a God whose worthiness of praise is not simply great but inexhaustible, surpassing every language, every tradition, every act of worship ever offered. Human beings have always sensed that the universe itself is somehow oriented toward gratitude, that beauty and order and life call for a response. This name gathers all of that instinct and says: yes, and the One toward whom that response flows is worthy beyond any measure we can bring to the reckoning.
There is something quietly freeing in this name. Because God is already the Most Lauded, already complete, already whole in glory, our praise is not an attempt to add to something that was lacking. It is more like tuning an instrument to a note that was already sounding. We align ourselves with a reality that precedes us. The name also carries an implicit acknowledgment of our own smallness: we cannot fully articulate what we are praising, and that is all right. The reach itself is the prayer.
In the Bahá'í understanding, the names and attributes we ascribe to God tell us something real about the direction we must look, even if the full reality of the Divine Essence remains forever beyond our grasp. 'The Most Lauded' is less a definition than a gesture, an outstretched hand acknowledging that whatever is highest, most beautiful, most deserving of reverence, points here.
Calling on The Most Lauded for healing
When we are ill, in body, in mind, or in the quieter, harder-to-name places of the spirit, it can feel as though praise is the last thing available to us. Pain narrows the world. Yet this is precisely where calling on 'The Most Lauded' can do something unexpected: it shifts the posture of the heart, if only slightly, from the contraction of suffering toward an opening. We are not asked to pretend that the hurt is not real. We are invited to remember, even in the middle of it, that the One we are addressing is already worthy of every act of gratitude and praise that has ever risen from a human chest, and that our small, faltering cry is received by that same One.
This name holds healing in trust rather than in certainty. Reaching toward God as the Most Lauded does not guarantee a particular outcome, and it does not replace the care of a skilled physician or therapist, please do seek competent medical guidance for any health concern. What it may offer is a kind of reorientation: the sense that we are held within something larger than our condition, and that the God we are calling upon is not indifferent to our need. Praise, in this light, becomes less a performance and more a form of trust, a way of saying, 'I do not understand what is happening, but I believe You are worthy, and I am here.'
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Living the Word
Applying The Most Lauded in your life
A name of God is a virtue to grow into. Where is The Most Lauded 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 →“Consider how grateful anyone becomes when healed from sickness, when treated kindly by another or when a service is rendered by another, even though it may be of the least consequence. If we forget such favors, it is an evidence of ingratitude. Then it will be said a loving-kindness has been done, but we are thankless, not appreciating this love and favor. Physically and spiritually we are submerged in the sea of God’s favor. He has provided our foods, drink and other requirements; His favors encompass us from all directions. The sustenances provided for man are blessings. Sight, hearing and all his faculties are wonderful gifts. These blessings are innumerable; no matter how many are mentioned, they are still endless. Spiritual blessings are likewise endless—spirit, consciousness, thought, memory, perception, ideation and other endowments. By these He has guided us, and we enter His Kingdom. He has opened the doors of all good before our faces. He has vouchsafed eternal glory. He has summoned us to the Kingdom of heaven. He has enriched us by the bestowals of God. Every day he has proclaimed new glad tidings. Every hour fresh bounties descend.”
Read in full at bahai.org →“This is the belief of the anthropomorphists. No, all these descriptions, all these expressions of praise and glory, refer to these holy Manifestations; that is, every description, praise, name, or attribute of God that we mention applies to Them. But no soul has ever fathomed the reality of the Essence of the Divinity so as to be able to intimate, describe, praise, or glorify it. Thus all that the human reality knows, discovers, and understands of the names, attributes, and perfections of God refers to these holy Manifestations and leads nowhere else: “The way is cut off, and all seeking rejected.” 6 Yet we ascribe certain names and attributes to the reality of the Divinity and praise Him for His sight, His hearing, His power, His life and knowledge. We affirm these names and attributes not to affirm the perfections of God, but to deny that He has any imperfections.”
Read in full at bahai.org →Questions about The Most Lauded
- Why does the Long Healing Prayer use so many names of God in a single line?
- Calling on multiple names in close succession reflects the understanding that no single name fully captures the reality of God, each one illuminates a different facet, and together they approach, without ever exhausting, the wholeness of the Divine. It also reflects a long tradition in Abrahamic prayer of invoking God's attributes as an act of both praise and trust, reminding the one praying of who it is they are addressing.
- Does calling God 'The Most Lauded' mean my praise has to be eloquent or complete?
- Not at all. The name itself suggests that God's worthiness of praise far exceeds any words we could produce, which means our imperfect, struggling attempts at gratitude are entirely welcome. Many people find that simply holding the name quietly, without elaborate language, is its own genuine form of reaching out.
- Can I use this prayer if I am not Bahá'í?
- The Long Healing Prayer was revealed by Bahá'u'lláh and is most naturally at home within Bahá'í devotional life, but people of many backgrounds have found the prayer meaningful. How to relate to it respectfully outside a Bahá'í context is something each person navigates for themselves, ideally with some understanding of its source and intention.
- Should I rely on this prayer instead of seeing a doctor?
- No, and this is important. Seeking competent medical care for physical illness is encouraged, not discouraged, in the Bahá'í teachings. Prayer and medical treatment are understood as companions, not competitors. The prayer addresses dimensions of healing that medicine alone cannot reach, but it is not intended as a substitute for professional care.
Listen to, recite, and reflect on the whole prayer, its more than one hundred names of God.
Hear the Long Healing Prayer