No. 30 of 124 · A Name of God · The Long Healing Prayer
The Ruling One
When we call on The Ruling One, we are acknowledging that ultimate authority over every condition of life belongs to God alone.
I call on Thee O Ruling One, O Self-Subsisting, O All-Knowing 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 · Ruling
1. Predominant; chief; reigning; controlling; as, a ruling passion; a ruling sovereign. 2. Used in marking or engraving lines; as, a ruling machine or pen. Syn.
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 Ruling 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 Ruling One' points to a sovereignty that is not like any human power. A king or judge holds authority within limits, a term of office, a jurisdiction, the finite reach of any mortal will. The Ruling One, by contrast, holds sway over all things without exception and without end. Nothing that exists, whether a galaxy or a heartbeat, falls outside the scope of this dominion. There is something both humbling and quietly relieving in sitting with that reality: not a single corner of our lives is beyond the reach of the One who rules with complete knowledge and complete care.
It is worth noticing that in the line of the prayer where this name appears, it is accompanied by names such as 'The Self-Subsisting,' 'The All-Knowing,' 'The Sufficing,' and 'The Abiding.' This clustering is not accidental. The sovereignty being invoked here is not raw power held apart from wisdom or sustenance. It is a ruling authority that knows us fully, that needs nothing from us to remain what it is, and that abides, it does not come and go. When we address God as The Ruling One, we are not appealing to a distant monarch who must be persuaded to look our way. We are turning toward an authority that is already, and always, attending to every detail of our existence.
In many spiritual traditions, the act of consciously naming divine sovereignty is itself a form of reorientation. We live much of our lives operating as though our own judgments, plans, and efforts are the final word on our circumstances. Calling on The Ruling One is a gentle, honest correction to that habit of mind. It does not ask us to become passive or to abandon our responsibilities. Rather, it invites us to hold our own efforts within a larger frame, one in which the ultimate outcome rests with a wisdom and authority far greater than our own.
Calling on The Ruling One for healing
When illness arrives, whether in the body, the mind, or the spirit, one of its most disorienting effects is the sudden sense that things are out of control. Turning to The Ruling One in prayer is a way of addressing that disorientation at its root. We are not pretending the difficulty is not real, nor are we demanding a particular resolution. We are, rather, placing ourselves consciously within the care of the One whose authority over our condition is complete. This is a different posture from resignation. It is more like the relief a person feels when, after struggling alone with something too heavy to carry, they finally allow a trustworthy companion to share the weight. Please do remember that seeking skilled medical care is itself a form of working within the order that divine wisdom has placed in the world, this prayer and a good physician belong together, not in competition.
There is also a dimension of healing here that goes beyond the physical. Many of us carry wounds rooted in the experience of powerlessness, situations in which harm was done and no earthly authority intervened. Calling on The Ruling One does not instantly resolve those wounds, but it can begin to shift something deep: the conviction that injustice and suffering have the final word. Whatever healing unfolds, and in whatever form and timing God's wisdom permits, it unfolds within a sovereignty that is never indifferent and never absent. Sitting with that name, repeating it quietly, can itself become a form of medicine for a heart that has forgotten it is held.
Also sought as: the ruling one bahai prayer · sovereign name of god healing prayer · bahá'u'lláh long healing prayer ruling · divine sovereignty healing prayer · al-hakim ruling one bahai · names of god bahai healing · lawh-i-anta'l-kafi names of god · ruling one self-subsisting prayer · bahai prayer for healing names · sovereign god healing bahai.
Living the Word
Applying The Ruling One in your life
A name of God is a virtue to grow into. Where is The Ruling 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
“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 →“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 →“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 →Questions about The Ruling One
- What does it mean that God is called 'The Ruling One' in a prayer for healing?
- It means the prayer is directing our attention to the fact that authority over our condition, its causes, its course, and its resolution, ultimately belongs to God. Naming this at the moment of illness or suffering is a way of reorienting ourselves away from fear and toward trust in a wisdom that sees the whole picture. It does not tell us what the outcome will be, but it reminds us in whose hands the outcome rests.
- Does calling God 'The Ruling One' mean I should not seek medical treatment?
- Not at all. Seeking competent medical care is widely understood within the Bahá'í teachings as a responsibility, not a contradiction of faith. The two work together: prayer addresses the spiritual dimension of healing, while medicine addresses the physical means through which recovery often comes. 'The Ruling One' governs both realms, and a good physician is among the instruments of that governance.
- Why is 'The Ruling One' paired with names like 'The Abiding One' and 'The Self-Subsisting' in the same line of the prayer?
- The grouping suggests that the sovereignty being invoked is not isolated from other divine qualities. It is a rulership that is eternal, self-sufficient, and ever-present, not a power that rises and falls or that depends on our circumstances to remain what it is. Together these names paint a picture of an authority that is both absolute and utterly reliable, which is precisely what someone in need of healing most needs to know about the One they are addressing.
- Can this name be used in personal, informal prayer as well as in the formal Long Healing Prayer?
- Many people find that individual names of God from the sacred writings become touchstones they return to in quiet, personal moments, not as formal recitation but as a way of holding a quality of the divine in mind. Reflecting on The Ruling One in your own words, in your own time of need, is a natural extension of the same impulse that the formal prayer embodies. There is no single correct way to let a name of God settle into the heart.
Listen to, recite, and reflect on the whole prayer, its more than one hundred names of God.
Hear the Long Healing Prayer