Does anyone know which Healing prayer Shoghi Effendi refers to when he makes this statement:
"These daily obligatory prayers, together with a few other specific ones, such as the Healing Prayer, the Tablet of Ahmad, have been invested by Bahá'u'lláh with a special potency and significance, and should therefore be accepted as such and be recited by the believers with unquestioned faith and confidence, that through them they may enter into a much closer communion with God, and identify themselves more fully with His Laws and precepts."

(Shoghi Effendi, Directives from the Guardian, p. 60)

Thanks,


Bob

My guess would be the long healing prayer, but as far as I've seen, this is the only passage that mentions it.

best wishes,
Brett

Thanks,
That prayer was not translated into English until 1980, so that makes me think that it might be another prayer, because why wouldn't Shoghi Effendi translate that one for the English speaking friends?

I thought it might be the short prayer, because he wrote that one to a physician.

Thy name is my healing, O my God, and remembrance of Thee is my remedy. Nearness to Thee is my hope, and love for Thee is my companion. Thy mercy to me is my healing and my succor in both this world and the world to come. Thou, verily, art the All-Bountiful, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.

- Bahá'u'lláh

(Compilations, Baha'i Prayers, p. 85)

Folks, I Contacted the Universal House of Justice about this question. What they said is they can't find anything specific, but they suggest it is probably the Long Healing Prayer. Here is the text of the response that I received:

28 September 2008
Transmitted by email: byoder@uspaint.com
Mr. Robert Yoder
U.S.A.
Dear Bahá’í Friend,
Your email message of 11 August 2008, regarding a statement by Shoghi Effendi about
the significance of the daily obligatory prayers, the Healing Prayer and the Tablet of A-mad,
was received by the Office of Public Information at the Bahá’í World Centre through the Web
site http://www.bahai.org and forwarded to our Department for response.

As to the Healing Prayer to which the Guardian refers, it is probably the one known as
the Long Healing Prayer, but nothing specific about this has been located at this time.
Concerning the Long Healing Prayer, you may find of interest the following excerpt from
a memorandum dated 7 August 1997 written by the Research Department at the instruction of
the Universal House of Justice:

While no direct reference to the power of the Long Healing Prayer has been
located in the Writings translated into English, it is interesting to observe that there
is a passage near the end of this prayer which seems to suggest its potential. We
read:

And again do I beseech Thee, by these most beauteous names, by these
most noble and sublime attributes, and by Thy most Exalted
Remembrance, and by Thy pure and spotless Beauty, and by Thy
hidden Light in the most hidden pavilion, and by Thy Name, cloaked
with the garment of affliction every morn and eve, to protect the bearer
of this blessed Tablet, and whoso reciteth it, and whoso cometh upon it,
and whoso passeth around the house wherein it is. Heal Thou, then, by
it every sick, diseased and poor one, from every tribulation and
distress, from every loathsome affliction and sorrow, and guide Thou
by it whosoever desireth to enter upon the paths of Thy guidance and
the ways of Thy forgiveness and grace.

In addition, as Ms. …’s friend is no doubt aware, in His Memorials of the
Faithful , ‘Abdu’l-Bahá relates a story about the dramatic effect which the recitation
of the Long Healing Prayer had on Mírzá Ja‘far-i-Yazdí. This story can also be
found in Hand of the Cause ‘Alí-Akbar Furútan’s Stories of Bahá’u’lláh.
The House of Justice was sorry to learn of your wife’s struggles with cancer, and you may
be assured of its prayers in the Holy Shrines on her behalf, that she may be surrounded by the
loving protection and tender mercies of the Blessed Beauty.
With loving Bahá’í greetings,
Department of the Secretariat

Hi Bob,

So sorry to hear of your wife's ordeal. As 'Abdu'l-Baha said, "Although ill health is one of the unavoidable conditions of man, truly it is hard to bear." Our prayers very much go out to you and your family...

By the way, you may wish to be aware that some automated tools (called "bots") are deployed by unscrupulous individuals/companies to scour the web to find genuine email addresses to which they send unsolicited spam, so, you might want to either hide or somehow obscure your email address by editing your last post.

warmest regards,
Brett

p.s. Thank you for sharing the response with us...

Yes but it was readily available in typescript. I had both it and the Fire Tablet that way in the late 60's. As I remember they were translated by Ali Quli Khan.

Don C

I would think Shogi Effendi is referencing the Long Healing Prayer when he is talking about prayers endowed with a special significance, largely because when it is classified in a prayer book, the Long Healing Prayer is categorized as "The Long Healing Prayer", given a separate title distinguishing it from other healing prayers, implying a special significance.

No doubt this is as a result of the people in charge of deciding which prayers go into the prayer book where, but obviously there is sufficient evidence for them to feel that the Long Healing Prayer merits a distinction from other healing prayers, implying I feel, that it has a special significance.