No. 2 of 124 · A Name of God · The Long Healing Prayer
The Sufficer
When we have exhausted every other resource, this name invites us to rest in the assurance that God alone is enough.
He is the Healer, the Sufficer, the Helper, the All-Forgiving, the All-Merciful. Bahá'u'lláh, The Long Healing Prayer · read the full prayer
Plain meaning · Sufficer
from “suffice”: To be enough, or sufficient; to meet the need (of anything); to be equal to the end proposed; to be adequate. Chaucer. To recount almighty works, What words or tongue of seraph can suffice Milton. 1. To satisfy; to content; to be equal to the wants or demands of. Spenser. Let it suffice thee; speak no more unto me of this matter. Deut. iii. 26. 2. To furnish; to supply adequately. [Obs.] The power appeased, with winds sufficed the sail. Dryden.
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 Sufficer” 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 word 'Sufficer' carries a quiet but enormous claim: that God is not merely helpful, not merely present, but genuinely, completely enough. To call upon God by this name is to acknowledge that whatever gaps remain in our own strength, understanding, or resources, they do not exceed what the Divine can meet. It is a name that pushes back against the anxious feeling that something essential is always missing.
In Arabic devotional language, a name of this kind, often rendered from a root meaning 'to suffice' or 'to be adequate for a need', has a long history of being invoked precisely in moments of extremity. It is not a triumphalist claim that everything will resolve the way we hope. Rather, it is a confession of dependence: that we are creatures whose deepest needs can only be truly met at a level beyond the material, and that the One who made us is capable of meeting us there.
What makes this name particularly striking in the context of the healing prayer is its placement alongside the Healer, the Helper, the All-Forgiving, and the All-Merciful. Together these names sketch a portrait of God as both medically attentive and morally tender, one who not only addresses symptoms but reaches into the whole person. 'The Sufficer' is almost a summary of all the others: whatever else you need, it is covered. That is an extraordinary thing to say, and the prayer invites us to sit with its weight rather than pass over it quickly.
Calling on The Sufficer for healing
When someone is navigating serious illness, whether their own or that of someone they love, there often comes a moment when the limits of human medicine become painfully clear. Treatments stall, diagnoses remain uncertain, or the emotional toll simply exceeds what any doctor or counselor can address alone. It is in exactly that kind of moment that calling upon God as the Sufficer can become more than a recitation. It can become an act of genuine surrender: an acknowledgment that we are not, in the end, the ones holding everything together, and that the One who is does not lack for resources. This is not a way of bypassing competent medical care, which remains important and is encouraged, but of placing that care within a larger frame of trust.
Healing in the Bahá'í understanding touches body, mind, and spirit together, and the Sufficer speaks to all three registers at once. Physically, it reminds us that outcomes rest ultimately in hands wiser than our own. Mentally, it can quiet the relentless calculation of 'what if' by pointing to a sufficiency that does not depend on our own problem-solving. Spiritually, it opens a door to the kind of peace that does not require certainty about results, only trust in the One who holds them. No specific outcome is promised by invoking any name of God, and genuine healing in its fullest sense may look different from what we first imagined. But the act of turning, sincerely and humbly, to the One described as sufficient for every need is itself a form of healing that no diagnosis can foreclose.
Also sought as: the sufficer bahá'u'lláh · god as sufficer bahai prayer · long healing prayer names of god · lawh-i-anta'l-kafi sufficer · bahai name of god sufficient · god is enough bahai healing · sufficer healer helper prayer bahai · divine names healing prayer bahá'í · bahai prayer for the sick names · al-kafi sufficer bahai.
Living the Word
Applying The Sufficer in your life
A name of God is a virtue to grow into. Where is The Sufficer 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 →“5 For example, the mind and the spirit of man are aware of all his states and conditions, of all the parts and members of his body, and of all his physical sensations, as well as of his spiritual powers, perceptions, and conditions. This is an existential knowledge through which man realizes his own condition. He both senses and comprehends it, for the spirit encompasses the body and is aware of its sensations and powers. This knowledge is not the result of effort and acquisition: It is an existential matter; it is pure bounty. 6 Since those sanctified realities, the universal Manifestations of God, encompass all created things both in their essence and in their attributes, since They transcend and discover all existing realities, and since They are cognizant of all things, it follows that Their knowledge is divine and not acquired—that is, it is a heavenly grace and a divine discovery.”
Read in full at bahai.org →Questions about The Sufficer
- What does 'The Sufficer' mean as a name of God in this prayer?
- It means that God is genuinely adequate, fully enough, for whatever need is being brought forward. The name is an invitation to trust that no human lack, however profound, falls outside what the Divine can meet. It does not specify how or when that sufficiency will be expressed, but it affirms that it exists.
- Does calling God 'The Sufficer' mean I don't need medical treatment?
- Not at all. Bahá'í guidance consistently encourages people to consult qualified physicians and to use the best available medical knowledge. Turning to God as the Sufficer is a spiritual act that complements, rather than replaces, responsible physical care. The two are understood to work together rather than in competition.
- Why is 'The Sufficer' placed alongside 'The Healer' in this line of the prayer?
- The grouping of several divine names in a single breath is a feature of devotional Arabic style, and each name adds a distinct shade of meaning. 'The Healer' points to God's active role in restoration, while 'The Sufficer' speaks to God's completeness as a source, together they suggest that God both acts to heal and possesses everything healing could possibly require. The combination is meant to deepen trust, not simply repeat it.
- Can this prayer guarantee that someone will recover from illness?
- No prayer or practice guarantees a particular physical outcome, and the Bahá'í Writings themselves note that healing is granted when it is right for the person, and that wisdom sometimes permits a different path. The Long Healing Prayer is offered in hope and trust, not as a transaction. Healing of the spirit and the soul is always available, even when physical healing takes a different course than we hoped.
Listen to, recite, and reflect on the whole prayer, its more than one hundred names of God.
Hear the Long Healing Prayer