No. 52 of 124 · A Name of God · The Long Healing Prayer
The Unfettered One
When every door seems closed and every remedy exhausted, the name The Unfettered One reminds us that God's power to heal and restore is limited by nothing whatsoever.
I call on Thee O Perfecting One, O Unfettered One, O Bountiful 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 · Unfettered
from “unfetter”: To loose from fetters or from restraint; to unchain; to unshackle; to liberate; as, to unfetter the mind.
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 Unfettered 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 Unfettered One' is to acknowledge something almost startling: that the divine does not operate within the boundaries that constrain everything else we know. Every force in the physical world has a counterforce. Every human will has a limit. Every institution, every medicine, every relationship is shaped and hemmed in by circumstance. But the One being addressed here is subject to none of that. There is no ceiling on mercy, no wall around power, no condition that must first be satisfied before God can act. The name is not a poetic flourish, it is a statement about the very nature of the divine reality.
This name sits in remarkable company in the prayer. It appears alongside 'The Perfecting One,' 'The Bountiful One,' and 'The Sufficing One', names that together paint a portrait of a God who not only can help, but who by nature tends toward completion, generosity, and sustenance. The Unfettered One is the foundation beneath those other qualities. Boundless mercy means something only if the source of that mercy is genuinely free to extend it without restriction. That is precisely what this name affirms.
There is also something quietly liberating in the name for the person who prays it. When we feel trapped, by illness, grief, circumstances that seem immovable, we are, in effect, calling out to the One who is not trapped. Whatever web of limitation we find ourselves in, we are addressing a Reality that stands entirely outside it. That contrast, held in prayer, can itself be a kind of opening.
Calling on The Unfettered One for healing
When illness or pain has persisted long enough to make hope feel naive, the name The Unfettered One offers a particular kind of foothold. It is not a claim that healing will certainly come in the form we picture, or on the schedule we need. Rather, it is an act of turning toward the only One whose capacity to help is genuinely unlimited, unconstrained by the severity of the diagnosis, the scarcity of resources, the passage of time, or the failures of previous treatments. Praying this name honestly means releasing, at least for a moment, our sense that the situation is locked. It means acknowledging that the final word has not been spoken by any doctor, circumstance, or our own fear. Please do continue to work closely with qualified physicians and healthcare professionals, that partnership is its own form of wisdom and care.
For healing of the spirit, the kind that comes after loss, betrayal, or the slow erosion of hope, The Unfettered One speaks directly to the feeling that something is irreparably broken. The soul that prays this name is not pretending the wound does not exist. It is simply refusing to believe that the wound has the last word. God's freedom to act in our lives, to restore what seemed beyond restoring, to open what seemed permanently shut, that freedom is the quiet promise embedded in this name. We hold it humbly, not as a guarantee, but as a genuine reason to keep turning toward the light.
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Living the Word
Applying The Unfettered One in your life
A name of God is a virtue to grow into. Where is The Unfettered 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 →“‘Say, all is from God’ is a sound and sufficient argument, and ‘if God toucheth thee with a hurt there is no dispeller thereof save Him’ is a healing medicine.””
Read in full at bahai.org →“24. 1We betook Ourselves to the wilderness, and there, separated and alone, led for two years a life of complete solitude. From Our eyes there rained tears of anguish, and in Our bleeding heart there surged an ocean of agonizing pain. Many a night We had no food for sustenance, and many a day Our body found no rest. By Him Who hath My being between His hands! notwithstanding these showers of afflictions and unceasing calamities, Our soul was wrapt in blissful joy, and Our whole being evinced an ineffable gladness. For in Our solitude We were unaware of the harm or benefit, the health or ailment, of any soul. Alone, We communed with Our spirit, oblivious of the world and all that is therein. We knew not, however, that the mesh of divine destiny exceedeth the vastest of mortal conceptions, and the dart of His decree transcendeth the boldest of human designs. None can escape the snares He setteth, and no soul can find release except through submission to His will. By the righteousness of God! Our withdrawal contemplated no return, and Our separation hoped for no reunion.”
Read in full at bahai.org →Questions about The Unfettered One
- Why does the Long Healing Prayer use so many different names for God?
- Each name in the prayer illuminates a distinct facet of the divine nature, the way different angles of light reveal different qualities of a gem. By invoking God through many names, including The Unfettered One, the prayer draws the heart toward a progressively fuller sense of who is being addressed. It is less like a list and more like a gradual opening of awareness.
- Does calling God 'The Unfettered One' mean I should stop seeking medical care?
- Not at all. Turning to God in prayer and seeking the care of skilled physicians are understood in the Bahá'í teachings as complementary, not competing, paths. Medicine is itself a gift, and using it wisely is encouraged. The name The Unfettered One speaks to God's ultimate freedom and power, it is not a reason to withdraw from the practical care that is available to us.
- What does 'unfettered' actually mean as a description of God?
- At its simplest, it means free of any constraint, chain, or limitation. Applied to God, it suggests that no circumstance, however severe, however entrenched, places a ceiling on what divine mercy and power can do. It is a name that directly addresses the feeling of being stuck or without options, by pointing toward the One for whom no such conditions apply.
- Can I pray just this one line of the Long Healing Prayer, or should I recite the whole text?
- The complete prayer as revealed by Bahá'u'lláh carries its own integrity and beauty, and many find that reciting it in full deepens their experience over time. That said, sitting quietly with a single phrase or name, truly dwelling in its meaning, is a form of devotion with its own value. Let your own condition and capacity guide you.
Listen to, recite, and reflect on the whole prayer, its more than one hundred names of God.
Hear the Long Healing Prayer