No. 12 of 124 · A Name of God · The Long Healing Prayer
The Peerless One
When everything and everyone we lean on proves limited, one Name reminds us that God alone stands beyond all comparison.
I call on Thee O Peerless One, O Eternal One, O Single 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 · Peerless
Having no peer or equal; matchless; superlative. "Her peerless feature." Shak. Unvailed her peerless light. Milton. --Peer"less*ly, adv.
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 Peerless 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 Peerless One' is to say, as plainly as language allows, that nothing in existence can be placed beside Him as an equal. Every other source of strength, wisdom, or comfort we might name, however real and good it may be, belongs to the created order. It has edges, limits, and a kind of dependency built into its very nature. God has none of these. The name points to a quality that is not merely superlative, as if God were simply the greatest among a long list of greats. It is categorical: there is no list on which God and anything else appear as peers.
This can feel abstract at first, but it carries enormous practical weight. When we say a thing is peerless, we mean that nothing substitutes for it and nothing exhausts it. Applied to the Divine, this means that however many times we return to God in need, we are not drawing down a finite reserve. The well does not run dry. The name also quietly dismantles the temptation to place our ultimate confidence in things that, however wonderful, are simply not built to bear that weight, institutions, relationships, our own health, our own minds. None of these are peers to God, which is a relief as much as it is a theological statement.
There is something gently humbling about sitting with this name. It does not make the world's gifts seem small; it simply puts them in their right place. A skilled doctor, a loving friend, a moment of unexpected peace, these remain genuine goods. But The Peerless One is the source behind the source, the ground from which every healing impulse, every act of care, every flicker of restoration ultimately rises. Recognizing this is not an exercise in detachment from life; it is an invitation to receive every gift with both gratitude and a kind of lightness, knowing where it actually comes from.
Calling on The Peerless One for healing
When illness or distress drives us to prayer, we often arrive already carrying a quiet fear: that what we need might simply not exist, or might not be available to us. Calling on The Peerless One is a way of addressing that fear at its root. It is an acknowledgment that the One we are turning to is not one option among several, not a last resort after other resources have been exhausted, but something categorically different, a presence without rival, without limit, without the possibility of being overwhelmed by our need. There is real comfort in this, not because it removes uncertainty about outcomes, but because it places us in relationship with a source that cannot run out.
It is worth holding this name alongside the counsel that God's healing works through many channels, through the knowledge and skill of physicians, through the care of those around us, through rest and time and the body's own remarkable capacities. Seeking medical attention and bringing our full situation to competent healthcare providers is not a sign of weak faith; it is often part of how healing actually unfolds in a human life. Calling on The Peerless One in prayer, and following sound medical guidance in the world, are not in tension. They belong together. We pray with honesty about what we hope for, and we hold that hope with open hands, trusting that the One who has no peer also has no need of our instructions about how or when to act.
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Living the Word
Applying The Peerless One in your life
A name of God is a virtue to grow into. Where is The Peerless 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
“31.1Wherefore must the friends of God, with utter sanctity, with one accord, rise up in the spirit, in unity with one another, to such a degree that they will become even as one being and one soul. On such a plane as this, physical bodies play no part, rather doth the spirit take over and rule; and when its power encompasseth all, then is spiritual union achieved. Strive ye by day and night to cultivate your unity to the fullest degree. Let your thoughts dwell on your own spiritual development, and close your eyes to the deficiencies of other souls. Act ye in such wise, showing forth pure and goodly deeds, and modesty and humility, that ye will cause others to be awakened. Creating Unity Among Humanity 32.1O ye friends of God! True friends are even as skilled physicians, and the Teachings of God are as healing balm, a medicine for the conscience of man. They clear the head, so that a man can breathe them in and delight in their sweet fragrance. They waken those who sleep. They bring awareness to the unheeding, and a portion to the outcast, and to the hopeless, hope.”
Read in full at bahai.org →“23.2The second attribute of perfection is justice and impartiality. This means to have no regard for one’s own personal benefits and selfish advantages, and to carry out the laws of God without the slightest concern for anything else. It means to see one’s self as only one of the servants of God, the All-Possessing, and except for aspiring to spiritual distinction, never attempting to be singled out from the others. It means to consider the welfare of the community as one’s own. It means, in brief, to regard humanity as a single individual, and one’s own self as a member of that corporeal form, and to know of a certainty that if pain or injury afflicts any member of that body, it must inevitably result in suffering for all the rest.”
Read in full at bahai.org →“Behold how their evil doings have hindered them from recognizing, in the Day of Resurrection, the Word of Truth, exalted be His glory. We cherish the hope that this people will henceforth shield themselves from vain hopes and idle fancies, and will attain to a true understanding of the meaning of Divine unity. The Person of the Manifestation hath ever been the representative and mouthpiece of God. He, in truth, is the Dayspring of God’s most excellent Titles, and the Dawning-Place of His exalted Attributes. If any be set up by His side as peers, if they be regarded as identical with His Person, how can it, then, be maintained that the Divine Being is one and incomparable, that His Essence is indivisible and peerless? Meditate on that which We have, through the power of truth, revealed unto thee, and be thou of them that comprehend its meaning.”
Read in full at bahai.org →Questions about The Peerless One
- Does calling God 'The Peerless One' mean other sources of help, like doctors, don't matter?
- Not at all. Recognizing God as peerless is about where ultimate reality and power reside, not about bypassing the ordinary channels through which healing and care flow in human life. The Bahá'í writings consistently encourage seeking the assistance of skilled physicians, and there is no contradiction between heartfelt prayer and competent medical care. They work in different registers and can support each other.
- How is 'Peerless' different from simply saying God is 'the greatest'?
- 'Greatest' still implies a ranking, first among others. 'Peerless' steps outside that framework entirely and says there is no category in which God and anything else stand as competitors. It is a qualitative difference, not just a quantitative one. This is why the name carries such a distinct feeling: it isn't about God winning a comparison; it's about the comparison not applying at all.
- Can meditating on this name actually help with anxiety or fear during illness?
- Many people find that sitting with a divine name in prayer gradually shifts their interior orientation, not by erasing fear, but by offering a point of stability that feels larger than the fear. Whether that kind of comfort arises is a personal and spiritual matter that varies from person to person, and we wouldn't presume to predict anyone's experience. What we can say is that the practice of calling on a name like this has been meaningful to many across the Bahá'í community, and it costs nothing to try it with an open heart.
- Is 'The Peerless One' a name found only in this prayer, or elsewhere in the Bahá'í writings?
- The quality of God's peerlessness, the idea that nothing can be likened to the Divine Essence, appears throughout the Bahá'í writings in various forms and phrasings. This particular line of the Long Healing Prayer clusters several related names together, suggesting that peerlessness, eternity, oneness, and healing are all facets of the same inexhaustible reality, illuminating one another when held side by side.
Listen to, recite, and reflect on the whole prayer, its more than one hundred names of God.
Hear the Long Healing Prayer