No. 43 of 124 · A Name of God · The Long Healing Prayer
The Succoring One
When we feel most outmatched by illness, loss, or fear, this name reminds us that we are never beyond the reach of divine help.
I call on Thee O Almighty, O Succoring One, O Concealing 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 · Succoring
from “succor”: tiono run to, or run to support; hence, to help or relieve when in difficulty, want, or distress; to assist and deliver from suffering; to relieve; as, to succor a besieged city. [Written also succour.] He is able to succor them that are tempted. Heb. ii. 18. 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 Succoring 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 succor someone is to come to their aid in a moment of urgent need, not slowly, not conditionally, but with the kind of swift attentiveness that a rescuer brings to someone in genuine peril. When Bahá'u'lláh addresses God as 'The Succoring One,' the name carries that whole weight of immediacy and care. It speaks of a God who is not distant or indifferent but who is oriented toward us, ready to respond when we call out.
There is something deeply personal about this name. Succor is not a bureaucratic transaction; it is the act of someone who sees your distress and moves toward you. Across many spiritual traditions, the divine has been understood as a refuge and a rescuer, and this name places that understanding at the very heart of the healing prayer. God is not merely a background presence but an active source of aid, One whose very nature inclines toward helping those who are vulnerable, struggling, or overwhelmed.
Sitting with this name in quiet reflection, one might notice how rarely we allow ourselves to feel genuinely helped. We manage, we cope, we push through, all worthy things, but 'The Succoring One' invites us into a different posture: the honest acknowledgment that we need help, paired with the trust that such help is available to us. That combination of honesty and trust is itself a kind of spiritual opening.
Calling on The Succoring One for healing
When the body is ill, the mind is exhausted, or the spirit feels cornered, calling on The Succoring One is an act of reaching toward the divine in exactly the way this name describes: with urgency, with need, and with some thread of trust that the reach is not in vain. This does not mean setting aside the doctor's advice or the therapist's counsel, quite the opposite. Wise and competent medical care is part of how healing moves through the world, and seeking it is both prudent and encouraged. But prayer addressed to The Succoring One can run alongside every earthly effort, holding the deeper question of our wellbeing in God's hands, where it ultimately rests anyway.
There is a particular comfort in repeating this name when you feel you have exhausted your own resources. The name itself is a kind of permission, permission to stop pretending you have everything under control, and to ask, plainly and from the heart, for help. Whether healing comes swiftly, gradually, or in forms we did not anticipate or choose, the act of turning toward The Succoring One is never wasted. It orients the soul. It keeps open a channel of trust. And in the wisdom of God, which is wider and more patient than our own, that orientation matters in ways we may not be able to measure.
Also sought as: the succoring one long healing prayer · succoring name of god bahai · lawh-i-anta'l-kafi names of god · divine succor bahai prayer · god as helper and rescuer bahai · names of god in the long healing prayer · bahai healing prayer reflection · succorer meaning spiritual · god who aids the suffering bahai · long healing prayer devotional study.
Living the Word
Applying The Succoring One in your life
A name of God is a virtue to grow into. Where is The Succoring 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 →“The enhancement of the devotional character of a community also has an effect on the Nineteen Day Feast and can be felt at other times when the friends come together. (The Universal House of Justice, from a letter dated 29 December 2015 to the Conference of the Continental Boards of Counsellors) [76] Further Considerations Prayers and Healing During thy supplications to God and thy reciting, “Thy Name is my healing,” consider how thine heart is cheered, thy soul delighted by the spirit of the love of God, and thy mind attracted to the Kingdom of God! By these attractions one’s ability and capacity increase. When the vessel is enlarged the water increases, and when the thirst grows the bounty of the cloud becomes agreeable to the taste of man. This is the mystery of supplication and the wisdom of stating one’s wants. (Report of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s words as quoted in J. E. Esslemont, Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era, p. 93) [77] O handmaid of God! Prayers are granted through the universal Manifestations of God. Nevertheless, where the wish is to obtain material things, even where the heedless are concerned, if they supplicate, humbly imploring God’s help—even their prayer hath an effect.”
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 →Questions about The Succoring One
- What does 'succoring' actually mean in this context?
- To succor means to give assistance or relief to someone in need, especially in a moment of difficulty or danger. In the context of this prayer, it describes God as the One who actively moves toward us when we are struggling, not passively waiting to be convinced, but oriented by nature toward our aid. It is a name that emphasizes divine responsiveness and care.
- Does calling on The Succoring One in the Long Healing Prayer guarantee that I will be healed?
- No, and the Bahá'í writings are gently honest about this. Healing is held in trust within God's wisdom, and what constitutes true healing, for the body, the mind, or the spirit, may unfold differently than we expect. The prayer is a genuine and powerful act of turning toward God, but outcomes remain in God's hands. Please do continue to work with qualified medical and mental health professionals alongside any spiritual practice.
- Can I use just this one name from the prayer as a focus for meditation?
- Many people find that dwelling on a single divine name, repeating it quietly, reflecting on its meaning, or holding it in mind during difficulty, can be a meaningful devotional practice. The Long Healing Prayer contains many such names, and focusing on one at a time is a natural way to let each one open up slowly. This website is designed exactly for that kind of patient, name-by-name reflection.
- Is 'The Succoring One' a name of God found in other traditions as well?
- The idea of God as a helper or rescuer who responds to human need runs through many of the world's spiritual traditions, including the Psalms in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures and several of the Beautiful Names of God in Islamic tradition. Bahá'u'lláh's use of this name in the Long Healing Prayer draws on a deep and widely shared human intuition that the divine is not indifferent to our suffering.
Listen to, recite, and reflect on the whole prayer, its more than one hundred names of God.
Hear the Long Healing Prayer