No. 14 of 124 · A Name of God · The Long Healing Prayer

The Single One

In a universe of bewildering complexity, one name reminds us that every strand of existence traces back to a single, undivided Source.

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

What “The Single 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 Single One' is to affirm something almost startling in its simplicity: that beneath all the multiplicity we encounter, the many sciences, the many medicines, the many people who care for us, there is ultimately one reality at the root of it all. This is not a mathematical claim so much as a spiritual orientation. When we name God as The Single One, we are saying that the divine is not divided against itself, not scattered across competing powers, but whole, undiluted, and complete.

There is a kind of relief in this. Human life is pulled in countless directions at once, and illness in particular has a way of fragmenting a person, body, mind, and spirit can feel like separate, warring territories. The name The Single One gently reverses that fragmentation at the level of the sacred. Whatever is broken in us, we are bringing it before something that is not broken, not partial, not in tension with itself. The undivided nature of God is itself a kind of medicine for the soul that feels scattered.

This name also carries the sense of incomparability, the quality of being in a category entirely of its own. The Single One is not simply the largest item in a set of powerful beings; it stands outside every category of comparison. That uniqueness is part of what the word 'Peerless' in the same invocation is pointing toward. Together these names circle the same truth from different angles: God is not one among many, but the One beyond all counting.

Calling on The Single One for healing

When someone sits with this name in the midst of illness or grief, one place to begin is simply with the acknowledgment that their suffering, however complicated it feels, is being held by a reality that is utterly undivided. We often bring fragmented prayers, hopeful in one moment, despairing in the next, trusting the doctor and doubting at the same time. There is nothing wrong with that human complexity. But The Single One invites us to set it all down before a Source that holds every thread without confusion. That act of placing ourselves before the undivided God can itself bring a measure of stillness.

Calling on The Single One is not a shortcut around the work of getting well. Physicians, counselors, medication, rest, the support of community, all of these remain important, and seeking competent medical care is always wise. Rather, this name offers a foundation beneath all those practical efforts: the sense that every true healing, wherever it comes through and however it arrives, flows ultimately from one Source. Outcomes remain in God's hands and in God's wisdom, which is far deeper than our own. To pray this name is to release the outcome to that wisdom while remaining active, hopeful, and engaged in the full range of care available to us.

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In the Bahá'í Writings

Questions about The Single One

Why does the Long Healing Prayer use so many different names for God?

Each name illuminates a distinct quality or aspect of a reality that no single word can fully capture. By moving through many names, the prayer approaches God from multiple angles, allowing the person praying to encounter the divine in a richer, more complete way. The Single One, appearing alongside names like the Peerless and the Eternal, contributes the particular quality of absolute unity and undividedness.

Does 'The Single One' mean the same thing as 'the one God' in other faiths?

There is genuine common ground: most of the world's major religions affirm the oneness or unity of God in some form. In the Bahá'í writings this theme of divine oneness is central and is understood to underlie the essential unity of all the world's religions. That said, the Bahá'í teachings have their own distinctive understanding of what divine oneness means, and exploration of that understanding is best done through the authoritative texts and commentaries of the Faith itself.

Can reciting this prayer guarantee that I will be healed?

The Bahá'í writings treat healing as something held in God's wisdom, not as an automatic outcome of any prayer. Healing, physical, emotional, or spiritual, may come in many forms and through many means, and its timing and nature remain in God's hands. Prayer is a profound and real act, but it works alongside, not instead of, competent medical care, and the results are always entrusted to a wisdom greater than our own.

How do I use this name as a focus during personal prayer or meditation?

Some people find it helpful to rest quietly with a single divine name, repeating it slowly and letting its meaning settle into their awareness rather than rushing past it. With The Single One, you might simply sit with the feeling of bringing your divided, complicated self before something utterly whole. There is no prescribed technique in the Bahá'í writings for this kind of reflection, so approach it in whatever way feels sincere and natural to you.

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