Al-Badīʿ (ٱلْبَدِيعُ): The Incomparable Originator — A Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Commentary

Presented by Claude for Zia H Shah MD

Abstract

This essay offers an interdisciplinary commentary on the divine attribute Al-Badīʿ (The Originator, the Incomparable Innovator), grounded in Qurʾān 2:117 and 6:101 and extended across the Qurʾān’s wider vocabulary of origination and return. Linguistically, Al-Badīʿ derives from the root b-d-ʿ, which Lane’s Lexicon defines as bringing a thing into existence “not after the similitude of anything pre-existing.” The essay distinguishes badaʿa from four cognate creative verbs — khalaqa (to create with measure/proportion), baraʾa (to bring forth free of defect), ṣawwara (to fashion form), and faṭara (to cleave forth) — drawing on classical lexicography (Lane, al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī) and the exegetical tradition (al-Ṭabarī, al-Rāzī, Ibn Kathīr, al-Ghazālī). Theologically it treats the status of Al-Badīʿ among the ninety-nine names, the doctrine of ibdāʿ / creatio ex nihilo in kalām, and the instantaneous divine imperative kun fa-yakūn. Scientifically it argues that Big Bang cosmology and the fine-tuning of the universe — the biophilic or anthropic cosmos — furnish, in our age of information, an unusually lucid natural commentary on these attributes, illustrated through the work of Zia H. Shah, MD, alongside Martin Rees, Fred Hoyle, Roger Penrose, Paul Davies, and Luke Barnes. Philosophically it connects Qurʾān 52:35–36 to the kalām cosmological argument of al-Ghazālī and its modern revival, and to the contingency arguments of Leibniz. It closes with an epilogue uniting origination (ibdāʿ), return (iʿādah), and the response of worship and awe.

I. Introduction: The Name and Its Question

Every act of thought about origins runs into a wall the Qurʾān names in a single word: Badīʿ. The universe is here; it did not have to be; and its being carries no signature of a prior model. The Qurʾān gathers this intuition into a divine attribute — Al-Badīʿ — and deploys it at the two hinges of its argument against idolatry and unbelief: Sūrat al-Baqarah 2:117 and Sūrat al-Anʿām 6:101.

The name belongs to a family of creation-words the Qurʾān uses with deliberate precision. This essay reads Al-Badīʿ together with the whole Qurʾānic grammar of origination and return, and asks what modern cosmology — the discovery of a universe with a beginning and with life-permitting constants tuned to extraordinary precision — contributes to our reading in the twenty-first century.

II. The Two Foundational Verses

Qurʾān 2:117 (Sūrat al-Baqarah)

بَدِيعُ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ ۖ وَإِذَا قَضَىٰٓ أَمْرًا فَإِنَّمَا يَقُولُ لَهُۥ كُن فَيَكُونُ

Badīʿu s-samāwāti wa-l-arḍ, wa-idhā qaḍā amran fa-innamā yaqūlu lahu kun fa-yakūn.

Sahih International: “Originator of the heavens and the earth. When He decrees a matter, He only says to it, ‘Be,’ and it is.”
Yusuf Ali: “To Him is due the primal origin of the heavens and the earth: When He decreeth a matter, He saith to it: ‘Be,’ and it is.”
Pickthall: “The Originator of the heavens and the earth! When He decreeth a thing, He saith unto it only: Be! and it is.”
Muhammad Asad: “The Originator is He of the heavens and the earth: and when He wills a thing to be, He but says unto it, ‘Be’ — and it is.”
Mustafa Khattab (The Clear Quran): “˹He is˺ the Originator of the heavens and the earth! When He decrees a matter, He simply tells it, ‘Be!’ And it is!”
Sher Ali (Ahmadiyya): “He is the Originator of the heavens and the earth. When He decrees a thing, He only says to it, ‘Be,’ and it is.”

Qurʾān 6:101 (Sūrat al-Anʿām)

بَدِيعُ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ ۖ أَنَّىٰ يَكُونُ لَهُۥ وَلَدٌ وَلَمْ تَكُن لَّهُۥ صَٰحِبَةٌ ۖ وَخَلَقَ كُلَّ شَىْءٍ ۖ وَهُوَ بِكُلِّ شَىْءٍ عَلِيمٌ

Badīʿu s-samāwāti wa-l-arḍ, annā yakūnu lahu waladun wa-lam takun lahu ṣāḥibah, wa-khalaqa kulla shayʾ, wa-huwa bi-kulli shayʾin ʿalīm.

Sahih International: “[He is] Originator of the heavens and the earth. How could He have a son when He does not have a companion and He created all things? And He is, of all things, Knowing.”
Yusuf Ali: “To Him is due the primal origin of the heavens and the earth: How can He have a son when He hath no consort? He created all things, and He hath full knowledge of all things.”
Pickthall: “The Originator of the heavens and the earth! How can He have a child, when there is for Him no consort, when He created all things and is Aware of all things?”
Muhammad Asad: “the Originator of the heavens and the earth! How could it be that He should have a child without there ever having been a mate for Him — since it is He who has created everything, and He alone knows everything?”
Mustafa Khattab (The Clear Quran): “˹He is˺ the Originator of the heavens and earth. How could He have children when He has no mate? He created all things and has ˹perfect˺ knowledge of everything.”
Sher Ali (Ahmadiyya): “He is the Originator of the heavens and the earth. How can He have a son when He has no consort, and when He has created everything and has knowledge of all things?”

In both verses badīʿ is a construct noun (of the faʿīl form functioning as mufʿil — Originator). Ibn Kathīr glosses Al-Badīʿ as “He who created them when nothing resembling them existed.” The pairing with kun fa-yakūn in 2:117 and with the denial of consort/offspring in 6:101 shows the doctrinal function of the name: it forecloses both the idea of a co-eternal material and the idea of divine procreation.

III. The Linguistics of Origination: bada’a, khalaqa, bara’a, sawwara, fatara

The Qurʾān does not use a single creation-verb; it deploys a differentiated vocabulary, and classical lexicography treats the differences as meaningful rather than merely stylistic.

بدع (badaʿa / abdaʿa). Lane’s Arabic-English Lexicon renders abdaʿahu: “He originated it; invented it… made it… newly, for the first time, it not having been or existed before, and not after the similitude of anything pre-existing“; and on the divine name, “al-Badīʿ is a name of God, meaning The Originator of the creation, according to His own will, not after the similitude of anything pre-existing.” The same root yields bidʿah, an innovation with no prior example — the linguistic reason human “innovation” and divine “origination” share a root while differing absolutely in kind.

فطر (faṭara). Lane records that fāṭir al-samāwāt means “The Originator [or Creator] of the heavens,” and preserves Ibn ʿAbbās’s celebrated report: “I did not know what is [the meaning of] fāṭir al-samāwāt… until two Arabs of the desert came to me, disputing about a well, and one of them said anā faṭartuhā — I originated, or began, it.” The root’s physical image is of cleaving or splitting forth (the tush of a camel cleaving the flesh as it emerges), which is why fiṭrah — the innate constitution — comes from the same root.

خلق (khalaqa). Al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī’s Mufradāt takes the primary sense of khalq to be taqdīr — measuring, proportioning, determining. Hence Qurʾān 25:2: “He created all things and determined them with [precise] determination (fa-qaddarahu taqdīran).” Khalq is creation with measure.

برأ (baraʾa). The root b-r-ʾ conveys being “free/clear of” (as in recovery from illness); al-Bāriʾ is the Maker who brings creation forth distinctly and free of flaw and incongruity.

صور (ṣawwara). Al-Muṣawwir is the Form-Giver, who bestows distinct shape, figure, and appearance — the final stage after measuring (khalq) and bringing-forth (barʾ).

The result is a graded semantics of creation: badaʿa (origination without any precedent) and faṭara (splitting into being) name the sheer inauguration of existence; khalaqa names its proportioning; baraʾa its faultless production; ṣawwara its formal fashioning. Al-Badīʿ therefore names the most radical moment — origination where there was neither model nor matter nor time.

IV. The Family of Creation-Names: 59:24, 35:1, 6:79, 57:3

Qurʾān 59:24 — Al-Khāliq, Al-Bāriʾ, Al-Muṣawwir

هُوَ ٱللَّهُ ٱلْخَٰلِقُ ٱلْبَارِئُ ٱلْمُصَوِّرُ ۖ لَهُ ٱلْأَسْمَآءُ ٱلْحُسْنَىٰ ۚ يُسَبِّحُ لَهُۥ مَا فِى ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ ۖ وَهُوَ ٱلْعَزِيزُ ٱلْحَكِيمُ

Sahih International: “He is Allah, the Creator, the Inventor, the Fashioner; to Him belong the best names. Whatever is in the heavens and earth is exalting Him. And He is the Exalted in Might, the Wise.”
Yusuf Ali: “He is Allah, the Creator, the Evolver, the Bestower of Forms (or Colours). To Him belong the Most Beautiful Names: whatever is in the heavens and on earth, doth declare His Praises and Glory: and He is the Exalted in Might, the Wise.”
Pickthall: “He is Allah, the Creator, the Shaper out of naught, the Fashioner. His are the most beautiful names. All that is in the heavens and the earth glorifieth Him, and He is the Mighty, the Wise.”
Muhammad Asad: “He is God, the Creator, the Maker who shapes all forms and appearances! His [alone] are the attributes of perfection. All that is in the heavens and on earth extols His limitless glory: for He alone is almighty, truly wise!”
Mustafa Khattab (The Clear Quran): “He is Allah: the Creator, the Inventor, the Shaper. He ˹alone˺ has the Most Beautiful Names. Whatever is in the heavens and the earth ˹constantly˺ glorifies Him. And He is the Almighty, All-Wise.”
Maulana Muhammad Ali (Ahmadiyya): “He is Allah, the Creator, the Maker, the Fashioner: His are the most beautiful names. Whatever is in the heavens and the earth declares His glory; and He is the Mighty, the Wise.”

Yusuf Ali’s note on this verse is a classic English summary: “Khalaqa is the general term for creation… Baraa implies a process of evolving from previously created matter or state; the Author of this process is Bari-u, the Originator. Sawwara implies giving definite form or colour, so as to make a thing exactly suited to a given end or object: hence the title Musawwir, Fashioner.” Al-Ghazālī compares the three to the roles of planner, builder, and designer in constructing a house — an ordered sequence of the one creative act.

Qurʾān 35:1 — Fāṭir

ٱلْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ فَاطِرِ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ جَاعِلِ ٱلْمَلَٰٓئِكَةِ رُسُلًا أُو۟لِىٓ أَجْنِحَةٍ مَّثْنَىٰ وَثُلَٰثَ وَرُبَٰعَ ۚ يَزِيدُ فِى ٱلْخَلْقِ مَا يَشَآءُ ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَىْءٍ قَدِيرٌ

Sahih International: “[All] praise is [due] to Allah, Creator of the heavens and the earth, [who] made the angels messengers having wings, two or three or four. He increases in creation what He wills. Indeed, Allah is over all things competent.”
Yusuf Ali: “Praise be to Allah, Who created (out of nothing) the heavens and the earth, Who made the angels, messengers with wings,- two, or three, or four (pairs): He adds to Creation as He pleases: for Allah has power over all things.”
Pickthall: “Praise be to Allah, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, Who appointeth the angels messengers having wings two, three and four. He multiplieth in creation what He will. Lo! Allah is Able to do all things.”
Muhammad Asad: “ALL PRAISE is due to God, Originator of the heavens and the earth, who causes the angels to be (His) message-bearers, endowed with wings, two, or three, or four. [Unceasingly] He adds to His creation whatever He wills: for, verily, God has the power to will anything.”
Mustafa Khattab (The Clear Quran): “All praise is for Allah, the Originator of the heavens and the earth, Who made angels ˹as His˺ messengers with wings—two, three, or four. He increases in creation whatever He wills. Surely Allah is Most Capable of everything.”
Maulana Muhammad Ali (Ahmadiyya): “Praise be to Allah, the Originator of the heavens and the earth, the Maker of the angels, messengers flying on wings, two, and three, and four. He increases in creation what He pleases. Surely Allah is Possessor of power over all things.”

Maulana Muhammad Ali notes that Fāṭir comes from faṭara, “he clove or split… also he originated or brought a thing into existence newly,” and suggests “reference to the creation of primeval matter in the original significance of cleaving or splitting.” The clause yazīdu fī l-khalq mā yashāʾ — “He increases/adds to creation what He wills” — is a striking Qurʾānic affirmation of continuing, open-ended creativity.

Qurʾān 6:79 — faṭara on the lips of Abraham

إِنِّى وَجَّهْتُ وَجْهِىَ لِلَّذِى فَطَرَ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضَ حَنِيفًا ۖ وَمَآ أَنَا۠ مِنَ ٱلْمُشْرِكِينَ

Sahih International: “Indeed, I have turned my face toward He who created the heavens and the earth, inclining toward truth, and I am not of those who associate others with Allah.”
Yusuf Ali: “For me, I have set my face, firmly and truly, towards Him Who created the heavens and the earth, and never shall I give partners to Allah.”
Pickthall: “Lo! I have turned my face toward Him Who created the heavens and the earth, as one by nature upright, and I am not of the idolaters.”
Muhammad Asad: “Behold, unto Him who brought into being the heavens and the earth have I turned my face, having turned away from all that is false; and I am not of those who ascribe divinity to aught beside Him.”
Mustafa Khattab (The Clear Quran): “I have turned my face towards the One Who has originated the heavens and the earth—being upright—and I am not one of the polytheists.”
Sher Ali (Ahmadiyya): “I have turned my face toward Him Who created the heavens and the earth, being ever inclined to God, and I am not of those who associate gods with God.”

A note on 6:89. The task listed 6:89 among the creation-attributes verses. Verification shows that 6:89 in fact belongs to the prophetic-lineage passage (6:83–90): “Those are the ones to whom We gave the Scripture and authority and prophethood…” It concerns al-kitāb, al-ḥukm, and al-nubuwwah, not origination. The creation-attribute the author likely intended is 6:79, where Abraham uses faṭara, and it is treated here in its place.

Qurʾān 57:3 — Al-Awwal, Al-Ākhir, Az-Zāhir, Al-Bāṭin

هُوَ ٱلْأَوَّلُ وَٱلْءَاخِرُ وَٱلظَّٰهِرُ وَٱلْبَاطِنُ ۖ وَهُوَ بِكُلِّ شَىْءٍ عَلِيمٌ

Sahih International: “He is the First and the Last, the Ascendant and the Intimate, and He is, of all things, Knowing.” (Older editions of Sahih International, and most other translators, render the final pair “the Manifest and the Hidden.”)
Yusuf Ali: “He is the First and the Last, the Evident and the Immanent: and He has full knowledge of all things.”
Pickthall: “He is the First and the Last, and the Outward and the Inward; and He is Knower of all things.”
Muhammad Asad: “He is the First and the Last, and the Outward as well as the Inward: and He has full knowledge of everything.”
Mustafa Khattab (The Clear Quran): “He is the First and the Last, the Most High and Most Near, and He has ˹perfect˺ knowledge of all things.” (Khattab’s footnote offers the alternative “the Manifest ˹through His signs˺ and the Hidden ˹from His creation˺.”)
Maulana Muhammad Ali (Ahmadiyya): “He is the First and the Last and the Manifest and the Hidden, and He is Knower of all things.”

Although 57:3 does not use the b-d-ʿ root, it grounds Al-Badīʿ metaphysically. To be Al-Awwal — the First, that which nothing precedes — is the necessary condition of being the Originator: only that which is itself unoriginated can originate without precedent.

V. Origination and Return: The Cyclical Verses

A striking feature of the Qurʾān is that origination (yabdaʾu) is almost always paired with repetition/return (yuʿīduhu). The same verb-pair anchors both the doctrine of resurrection and a cosmology of beginning-and-end.

Qurʾān 10:4 (Sūrat Yūnus)

إِلَيْهِ مَرْجِعُكُمْ جَمِيعًا ۖ وَعْدَ ٱللَّهِ حَقًّا ۚ إِنَّهُۥ يَبْدَؤُا۟ ٱلْخَلْقَ ثُمَّ يُعِيدُهُۥ لِيَجْزِىَ ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَعَمِلُوا۟ ٱلصَّٰلِحَٰتِ بِٱلْقِسْطِ …

Sahih International: “…Indeed, He begins the [process of] creation and then repeats it that He may reward those who have believed and done righteous deeds, in justice…”
Yusuf Ali: “…It is He Who beginneth the process of creation, and repeateth it, that He may reward with justice those who believe and work righteousness…”
Pickthall: “…Lo! He produceth creation, then reproduceth it, that He may reward those who believe and do good works with equity…”
Muhammad Asad: “…for, behold, He creates [man] in the first instance, and then brings him forth anew to the end that He may reward with equity all who attain to faith and do righteous deeds…”
Mustafa Khattab (The Clear Quran): “…Indeed, He originates the creation then resurrects it so that He may justly reward those who believe and do good…”
Sher Ali (Ahmadiyya): “…He originates the creation; then He reproduces it, that He may reward those who believe and do good works, with equity…”

Qurʾān 10:34

قُلْ هَلْ مِن شُرَكَآئِكُم مَّن يَبْدَؤُا۟ ٱلْخَلْقَ ثُمَّ يُعِيدُهُۥ ۚ قُلِ ٱللَّهُ يَبْدَؤُا۟ ٱلْخَلْقَ ثُمَّ يُعِيدُهُۥ ۖ فَأَنَّىٰ تُؤْفَكُونَ

Sahih International: “Say, ‘Are there of your “partners” any who begins creation and then repeats it?’ Say, ‘Allah begins creation and then repeats it, so how are you deluded?’” Quranic Arabic Corpus
Yusuf Ali: “Say: ‘Of your “partners”, can any originate creation and repeat it?’ Say: ‘It is Allah Who originates creation and repeats it: then how are ye deluded away (from the truth)?’” Islamic Bridge
Pickthall: “Say: Is there of your partners one that produceth Creation and then reproduceth it? Say: Allah produceth Creation, then reproduceth it. How then, are ye misled!”
Muhammad Asad: “Say: ‘Can any of those beings to whom you ascribe a share in God’s divinity create [life] in the first instance, and then bring it forth anew?’… Say: ‘It is God [alone] who creates… in the first instance, and then brings it forth anew. How perverted, then, are your minds!’”
Mustafa Khattab (The Clear Quran): “Ask ˹them, O Prophet˺, ‘Can any of your associate-gods originate creation and then resurrect it?’ Say, ‘˹Only˺ Allah originates creation and then resurrects it. How can you then be deluded ˹from the truth˺?’”
Sher Ali (Ahmadiyya): “Say, ‘Is there any of your associate-gods who originates creation and then reproduces it?’ Say, ‘It is Allah alone Who originates creation and then reproduces it. Whither then are you turned away?’” slideshare

Qurʾān 27:64 (Sūrat al-Naml)

أَمَّن يَبْدَؤُا۟ ٱلْخَلْقَ ثُمَّ يُعِيدُهُۥ وَمَن يَرْزُقُكُم مِّنَ ٱلسَّمَآءِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ ۗ أَءِلَٰهٌ مَّعَ ٱللَّهِ ۚ قُلْ هَاتُوا۟ بُرْهَٰنَكُمْ إِن كُنتُمْ صَٰدِقِينَ

Sahih International: “Is He [not best] who begins creation and then repeats it and who provides for you from the heaven and earth? Is there a deity with Allah? Say, ‘Produce your proof, if you should be truthful.’”
Yusuf Ali: “Or, Who originates creation, then repeats it, and who gives you sustenance from heaven and earth? (Can there be another) god besides Allah? Say, ‘Bring forth your argument, if ye are telling the truth!’”
Pickthall: “Is not He (best) Who produceth creation, then reproduceth it, and Who provideth for you from the heaven and the earth? Is there any Allah beside Allah? Say: Bring your proof, if ye are truthful!”
Muhammad Asad: “Nay — who is it that creates [all life] in the first instance, and then brings it forth anew? And who is it that provides you with sustenance out of heaven and earth? Could there be any divine power besides God?…”
Mustafa Khattab (The Clear Quran): “Or ˹ask them,˺ ‘Who originates the creation then resurrects it, and gives you provisions from the heavens and the earth? Is it another god besides Allah?’ Say, ˹O Prophet,˺ ‘Show ˹me˺ your proof, if what you say is true.’”
Sher Ali (Ahmadiyya): “Or, Who originates creation, and then repeats it and Who provides for you from the heaven and the earth? Is there a God besides Allah? Say, ‘Bring forward your proof if you are truthful.’” slideshare

Qurʾān 29:19 (Sūrat al-ʿAnkabūt)

أَوَلَمْ يَرَوْا۟ كَيْفَ يُبْدِئُ ٱللَّهُ ٱلْخَلْقَ ثُمَّ يُعِيدُهُۥٓ ۚ إِنَّ ذَٰلِكَ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ يَسِيرٌ

Sahih International: “Have they not considered how Allah begins creation and then repeats it? Indeed that, for Allah, is easy.”
Yusuf Ali: “See they not how Allah originates creation, then repeats it: truly that is easy for Allah.” Islamic Bridge
Pickthall: “See they not how Allah produceth creation, then reproduceth it? Lo! for Allah that is easy.”
Muhammad Asad: “Are then they [who deny the truth] not aware of how God creates [life] in the first instance, and then brings it forth anew? This, verily, is easy for God!”
Mustafa Khattab (The Clear Quran): “Have they not seen how Allah originates the creation then resurrects it? That is certainly easy for Allah.”
Sher Ali (Ahmadiyya): “See they not how Allah originates creation, then repeats it? That surely is easy for Allah.”

(Grammatically, yubdiʾu here is the fourth-form verb; a variant reading yabdaʾu is the first form, both from the same b-d-ʾ family and both meaning “He originates.”)

Qurʾān 29:20

قُلْ سِيرُوا۟ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ فَٱنظُرُوا۟ كَيْفَ بَدَأَ ٱلْخَلْقَ ۚ ثُمَّ ٱللَّهُ يُنشِئُ ٱلنَّشْأَةَ ٱلْءَاخِرَةَ ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَىْءٍ قَدِيرٌ

Sahih International: “Say, [O Muhammad], ‘Travel through the land and observe how He began creation. Then Allah will produce the final creation. Indeed Allah, over all things, is competent.’”
Yusuf Ali: “Say: ‘Travel through the earth and see how Allah did originate creation; so will Allah produce a later creation: for Allah has power over all things.’”
Pickthall: “Say (O Muhammad): Travel in the land and see how He originated creation, then Allah bringeth forth the later growth. Lo! Allah is Able to do all things.”
Muhammad Asad: “Say: ‘Go all over the earth and behold how [wondrously] He has created [man] in the first instance: and thus, too, will God bring into being your second life for, verily, God has the power to will anything!’”
Mustafa Khattab (The Clear Quran): “Say, ˹O Prophet,˺ ‘Travel throughout the land and see how He originated the creation, then Allah will bring it into being one more time. Surely Allah is Most Capable of everything.’”
Sher Ali (Ahmadiyya): “Say, ‘Travel in the earth, and see how He originated the creation. Then will Allah provide the latter creation. Surely Allah has power over all things.’”

29:20 is remarkable for commanding empirical investigation — sīrū fī l-arḍ fa-nẓurū (“travel and observe”) — as the road to recognizing how creation began.

Qurʾān 30:11 and 30:27 (Sūrat al-Rūm)

30:11:

ٱللَّهُ يَبْدَؤُا۟ ٱلْخَلْقَ ثُمَّ يُعِيدُهُۥ ثُمَّ إِلَيْهِ تُرْجَعُونَ

Sahih International: “Allah begins creation; then He will repeat it; then to Him you will be returned.”
Yusuf Ali: “It is Allah Who begins (the process of) creation; then repeats it; then shall ye be brought back to Him.”
Pickthall: “Allah produceth creation, then He reproduceth it, then unto Him ye will be returned.”
Muhammad Asad: “GOD creates [man] in the first instance, and then brings him forth anew: and, in the end, unto Him you all will be brought back.”
Mustafa Khattab (The Clear Quran): “It is Allah Who originates the creation, and will resurrect it. And then to Him you will ˹all˺ be returned.”
Sher Ali (Ahmadiyya): “Allah originates creation; then repeats it; then to Him shall you be brought back.”

30:27:

وَهُوَ ٱلَّذِى يَبْدَؤُا۟ ٱلْخَلْقَ ثُمَّ يُعِيدُهُۥ وَهُوَ أَهْوَنُ عَلَيْهِ ۚ وَلَهُ ٱلْمَثَلُ ٱلْأَعْلَىٰ فِى ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ ۚ وَهُوَ ٱلْعَزِيزُ ٱلْحَكِيمُ

Sahih International: “And it is He who begins creation; then He repeats it, and that is [even] easier for Him. To Him belongs the highest attribute in the heavens and earth. And He is the Exalted in Might, the Wise.”
Yusuf Ali: “It is He Who begins (the process of) creation; then repeats it; and for Him it is most easy. To Him belongs the loftiest similitude (we can think of) in the heavens and the earth: for He is Exalted in Might, full of wisdom.”
Pickthall: “He it is Who produceth creation, then reproduceth it, and it is easier for Him. His is the Sublime Similitude in the heavens and the earth. He is the Mighty, the Wise.”
Muhammad Asad: “And He it is who creates [all life] in the first instance, and then brings it forth anew: and most easy is this for Him, since His is the essence of all that is most sublime in the heavens and on earth, and He alone is almighty, truly wise.”
Mustafa Khattab (The Clear Quran): “And He is the One Who originates the creation then will resurrect it—which is even easier for Him. To Him belong the finest attributes in the heavens and the earth. And He is the Almighty, All-Wise.”
Sher Ali (Ahmadiyya): “And He it is Who originates the creation, then repeats it, and it is most easy for Him. His is the most exalted state in the heavens and the earth; and He is the Mighty, the Wise.”

Qurʾān 85:13 (Sūrat al-Burūj)

إِنَّهُۥ هُوَ يُبْدِئُ وَيُعِيدُ

Sahih International: “Indeed, it is He who originates [creation] and repeats.”
Yusuf Ali: “It is He Who creates from the very beginning, and He can restore (life).”
Pickthall: “Lo! He it is Who produceth, then reproduceth,”
Muhammad Asad: “for, behold, it is He who creates [man] in the first instance, and He [it is who] will bring him forth anew.”
Mustafa Khattab (The Clear Quran): “˹For˺ He is certainly the One Who originates and resurrects ˹all˺.”
Sher Ali (Ahmadiyya): “He it is Who originates and reproduces;”

Qurʾān 21:104 (Sūrat al-Anbiyāʾ) — Rolling up the heavens

يَوْمَ نَطْوِى ٱلسَّمَآءَ كَطَىِّ ٱلسِّجِلِّ لِلْكُتُبِ ۚ كَمَا بَدَأْنَآ أَوَّلَ خَلْقٍ نُّعِيدُهُۥ ۚ وَعْدًا عَلَيْنَآ ۚ إِنَّا كُنَّا فَٰعِلِينَ

Sahih International: “The Day when We will fold the heaven like the folding of a [written] sheet for the records. As We began the first creation, We will repeat it. [That is] a promise binding upon Us. Indeed, We will do it.”
Yusuf Ali: “The Day that We roll up the heavens like a scroll rolled up for books (completed),- even as We produced the first creation, so shall We produce a new one: a promise We have undertaken: truly shall We fulfil it.”
Pickthall: “The Day when We shall roll up the heavens as a recorder rolleth up a written scroll. As We began the first creation, We shall repeat it. (It is) a promise (binding) upon Us. Lo! We are to perform it.”
Muhammad Asad: “On that Day We shall roll up the skies as written scrolls are rolled up; [and] as We brought into being the first creation, so We shall bring it forth anew — a promise which We have willed upon Ourselves: for, behold, We are able to do [all things]!”
Mustafa Khattab (The Clear Quran): “On that Day We will roll up the heavens like a scroll of writings. Just as We produced the first creation, ˹so˺ shall We reproduce it. That is a promise binding on Us. We truly uphold ˹Our promises˺!”
Sher Ali (Ahmadiyya): “Remember the day when We shall roll up the heavens like the rolling up of written scrolls by a scribe. As We began the first creation, so shall We repeat it — a promise binding upon Us; We shall certainly perform it.”

Qurʾān 32:7 (Sūrat al-Sajdah) — Perfection and clay

ٱلَّذِىٓ أَحْسَنَ كُلَّ شَىْءٍ خَلَقَهُۥ ۖ وَبَدَأَ خَلْقَ ٱلْإِنسَٰنِ مِن طِينٍ

Sahih International: “Who perfected everything which He created and began the creation of man from clay.”
Yusuf Ali: “He Who has made everything which He has created most good: He began the creation of man with (nothing more than) clay.”
Pickthall: “Who made all things good which He created, and He began the creation of man from clay.”
Muhammad Asad: “who makes most excellent everything that He creates. Thus, He begins the creation of man out of clay.”
Mustafa Khattab (The Clear Quran): “Who has perfected everything He created. And He originated the creation of humankind from clay.”
Sher Ali (Ahmadiyya): “Who has made perfect everything He has created. And He began the creation of man from clay.”

Two themes converge in 32:7: aḥsana kulla shayʾin khalaqahu (He perfected everything He created — the optimization theme) and badaʾa khalqa l-insāni min ṭīn (He began the creation of man from clay — the origin-of-life theme). Quran O

VI. The Kalām Verse: 52:35–36

أَمْ خُلِقُوا۟ مِنْ غَيْرِ شَىْءٍ أَمْ هُمُ ٱلْخَٰلِقُونَ ۝ أَمْ خَلَقُوا۟ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضَ ۚ بَل لَّا يُوقِنُونَ

Sahih International: “Or were they created by nothing, or were they the creators [of themselves]? Or did they create the heavens and the earth? Rather, they are not certain.”
Yusuf Ali: “Were they created of nothing, or were they themselves the creators? Or did they create the heavens and the earth? Nay, they have no firm belief.”
Pickthall: “Or were they created out of naught? Or are they the creators? Or did they create the heavens and the earth? Nay, but they are sure of nothing!” Answeringislam
Muhammad Asad: “[Or do they deny the existence of God?] Have they themselves been created without anything [that might have caused their creation]? Or were they, perchance, their own creators? Or is it that they [themselves] have created the heavens and the earth? Nay, but they have no certainty of anything!”
Mustafa Khattab (The Clear Quran): “Or were they created by nothing, or are they ˹their own˺ creators? Or did they create the heavens and the earth? In fact, they have no firm belief ˹in the truth˺.”
Sher Ali (Ahmadiyya): “Were they created by nothing, or are they themselves the creators? Or did they create the heavens and the earth? Nay, but they have no certainty of faith.”

These two verses anticipate, in trilemma form, the entire modern cosmological debate. Given a contingent thing (here, the questioners themselves, and by extension the cosmos), there are exactly three options: (1) it came from nothing, uncaused; (2) it created itself; (3) it was created by something else. Self-creation is incoherent (a thing would have to exist before it existed). The Qurʾān presents option (1) as manifestly unreasonable and option (3) as pointing to the transcendent Originator, Al-Badīʿ. Option (2) at cosmic scale — “did they create the heavens and the earth?” — is beyond absurd. What remains is a Cause not itself part of the created order.

VII. Theological Commentary

Is Al-Badīʿ among the Ninety-Nine Names?

The status of Al-Badīʿ is genuinely disputed. It appears in the list of ninety-nine names transmitted in the ḥadīth of Abū Hurayrah via al-Walīd ibn Muslim recorded by al-Tirmidhī and Ibn Ḥibbān. However, scholars regard the specific enumeration within that ḥadīth as a later insertion; the core report (“Allah has ninety-nine names…”) is authentic, but the list is not. Consequently scholars divide: al-Ghazālī (who devotes an entry to it in al-Maqṣad al-Asnā) and Ibn ʿArabī affirm Al-Badīʿ as a name; Ibn Ḥazm and Ibn ʿUthaymīn do not include it. All agree, however — as the fatwā literature stresses — that as a divine attribute grounded directly in 2:117 and 6:101 it is beyond dispute. Al-Ghazālī’s own rendering, in the Burrell–Daher translation of the Maqṣad, glosses Al-Badīʿ as “The Absolute Cause”: the One from whom existence proceeds with neither prior model nor prior temporal-instrumental cause. IslamWeb + 3

Ibdāʿ and creatio ex nihilo in kalām

The verbal noun ibdāʿ became a technical term. In kalām and falsafah it denotes the bringing-into-being of a thing without pre-existing matter and without temporal antecedent — precisely creation ex nihilo. The mutakallimūn (Muʿtazilites and Ashʿarites alike, in the main) affirmed ḥudūth al-ʿālam, the temporal origination of the world out of nothing, against the Aristotelian-Avicennan thesis of an eternal cosmos emanating necessarily from the First. Al-Kindī, the “philosopher of the Arabs,” used ibdāʿ to mean the causing of being from non-being, and argued for a finite past. Al-Fārābī and Ibn Sīnā, by contrast, preserved God’s ontological priority while holding the world eternal — the position al-Ghazālī attacked in Tahāfut al-Falāsifah, where he insisted that “time did have a beginning; it was created; and before time there was no time whatsoever.” Academia.edu

Kun fa-yakūn

The formula kun fa-yakūn (“Be! — and it is”), attached to Al-Badīʿ in 2:117, expresses creation by sheer will and command rather than by process, tool, or struggle. It denies any labor or intermediary: origination is the immediate effect of the divine imperative. Theologically this both magnifies divine omnipotence and undergirds the ease of re-creation stressed in 30:27 (“that is easier for Him”) and 29:19 (“that is easy for Allah”).

Divine origination versus human innovation

Because ibdāʿ and bidʿah share the root b-d-ʿ, the tradition drew a sharp line: God alone originates from nothing (ibdāʿ), whereas all human “creativity” is recombination of what already exists. Human bidʿah in matters of religion is censured precisely as an arrogation of originative authority that belongs to God. The distinction is not anti-intellectual: it locates human science and art as discovery and recombination within a created order, an act of reading God’s prior origination rather than rivaling it. Islamic Wall Arts

VIII. Philosophical Commentary

The kalām cosmological argument

The argument’s classic form is al-Ghazālī’s: “Every being which begins has a cause for its beginning; now the world is a being which begins; therefore it possesses a cause for its beginning.” In modern notation (as revived by William Lane Craig): (1) whatever begins to exist has a cause; (2) the universe began to exist; (3) therefore the universe has a cause. Al-Ghazālī defended premise (2) by arguing that an actual infinite series of past events is impossible, so the past must be finite. The cause of a temporally finite universe must itself be beginningless, changeless, immaterial, and — since it selected a moment for creation — endowed with will: a personal Originator. This is Al-Badīʿ rendered in the idiom of natural theology. springer springer

Contingency, sufficient reason, and Leibniz

A complementary line runs through Leibniz’s principle of sufficient reason and his question, “Why is there something rather than nothing?” A contingent being does not contain the reason for its own existence; the totality of contingent things is itself contingent; therefore the sufficient reason for the world lies in a necessary being. Qurʾān 52:35–36 poses this in its starkest form: things that neither made themselves nor arose from nothing require a Maker. Al-Badīʿ names the terminus of the explanatory regress — the Originator who is not Himself originated (Al-Awwal, 57:3). Philosophy Institute

IX. Scientific Commentary I: Big Bang Cosmology and the Motif of Beginning-and-Return

Modern cosmology transformed the question of cosmic origins from metaphysics into physics. The convergence of the expansion of the universe, the cosmic microwave background, and Big Bang nucleosynthesis established that the observable universe has a finite age — 13.787 ± 0.020 billion years on the Planck 2018 ΛCDM analysis (ESA’s Planck release states that “the age of the Universe is 13.82 billion years”) — and emerged from an extremely hot, dense early state. The Big Bang thus supplies a scientifically detailed image of a cosmos that began — a striking resonance with the Qurʾānic insistence that God yabdaʾu l-khalq (begins creation) and with the kalām premise that the universe began to exist.

The Qurʾānic pairing of origination with return likewise finds cosmological echoes. Qurʾān 21:104’s image — “the Day We roll up the heaven like the rolling up of a written scroll… as We began the first creation, so shall We repeat it” — pairs an eschatological folding of the cosmos with a reprise of the first creation. Zia H. Shah, MD, in his commentary on 21:104, notes that classical exegesis (al-Qurṭubī) already identified two senses of al-ṭayy: al-darj (rolling up, the opposite of unfurling) and al-ikhfāʾ wa-l-maḥw (concealment and effacement). The verse’s kamā badaʾnā… nuʿīduhu is directly paralleled by 30:11, 30:27, 10:4, 27:64, 29:19, and 85:13. Whether one reads these primarily as teaching bodily resurrection (their principal theological sense) or also as intimating a cosmological cycle of beginning and end, the structural point stands: the God who originates is the God who can re-originate, “and that is easier for Him.”

A caution is in order. Physics does not currently license a confident cyclic cosmology; models such as the ekpyrotic/cyclic scenarios of Steinhardt and Turok remain speculative and face the entropy problems emphasized by Penrose. The Qurʾānic beginning-and-return should be read primarily in its theological register (origination, resurrection, accountability), with cosmological models offered as illustrative resonance rather than proof.

X. Scientific Commentary II: The Fine-Tuned, Biophilic Universe

The most powerful contemporary natural commentary on Al-Badīʿ is the discovery that the universe is “fine-tuned” — its fundamental constants and initial conditions fall within extraordinarily narrow life-permitting ranges. As Paul Davies wrote in “How bio-friendly is the universe?” (International Journal of Astrobiology 2, no. 2, 2003, p. 115), “There is now broad agreement among physicists and cosmologists that the Universe is in several respects ‘fine-tuned’ for life,” though he carefully adds that such fine-tuning “is a necessary, but by no means sufficient, condition for biogenesis,” and that the universe is fine-tuned “for the building blocks and environments that life requires.” Davies further distinguishes “minimally biophilic” universes, in which life is barely possible, from “optimally biophilic” universes in which biogenesis occurs readily. University of New Mexico + 3

The six numbers

Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal, argued in Just Six Numbers (1999) that six dimensionless constants govern the cosmos: N (~10³⁶, the ratio of electromagnetic to gravitational force between protons); ε (~0.007, the efficiency with which hydrogen fuses to helium); Ω (~0.3, the density parameter); λ (~0.7, the cosmological constant); Q (~10⁻⁵, the amplitude of density fluctuations); and D (=3, the number of spatial dimensions). Rees held that if any of these were significantly different, a life-bearing universe would be impossible. Audible Focus

The cosmological constant

The most severe case is the cosmological constant (dark energy). Quantum field theory’s naive estimate of the vacuum energy exceeds the observed value by roughly 120 orders of magnitude. As the supersymmetry review “The Supersymmetric Top-Ten Lists” (arXiv:hep-ph/9308209) puts it, “based on the fact that the universe has endured over 10 billion years… Λ₀/M_P⁴ < 10⁻¹²¹. This is the mother of all fine-tuning and naturalness problems!” Framed via Burgess and Moore’s textbook (as quoted in Luke Barnes’s review, arXiv:1112.4647), quantum field theory “predicts contributions to the vacuum energy of the universe that are ∼10¹²⁰ times greater than the observed total value.” For the universe to form galaxies and stars rather than fly apart or recollapse, the net value must be tuned to something like one part in 10¹²⁰. Steven Weinberg’s anthropic bound on Λ is among the few successful anthropic predictions. arxiv

Carbon and the Hoyle state

Fred Hoyle predicted in 1953 that carbon-12 must possess a resonance near 7.65 MeV to allow the triple-alpha process — the near-simultaneous fusion of three helium nuclei — to produce carbon in sufficient abundance in red-giant cores. The resonance (now the “Hoyle state”) was confirmed experimentally. The sensitivity is real but bounded: per Livio et al. (1989), as reported in Barnes’s review (arXiv:1112.4647), “one could increase the energy of the [Hoyle 0⁺] level by 60 keV without affecting the level of carbon production” — a tolerance on the order of a few percent, beyond which carbon (and hence carbon-based life) becomes scarce. Hoyle famously concluded that “a superintellect has monkeyed with physics.” (Historians such as Helge Kragh note that some of the “anthropic myth” around Hoyle’s own conversion is overstated; the physics of the resonance, however, is not in dispute.) Nautilus Springer

Penrose’s entropy number

Roger Penrose estimated the astonishing low-entropy specialness of the initial state. In The Emperor’s New Mind (Penguin, 1989, p. 343) he wrote: “In order to produce a universe resembling the one in which we live, the Creator would have to aim for an absurdly tiny volume of the phase space of possible universes — about 1/10^(10^123) of the entire volume, for the situation under consideration.” Without this near-minimal gravitational entropy, a smooth, structure-forming, life-permitting cosmos would not arise. Penrose, himself not a theist, concluded that some very special constraint must have obtained at the Big Bang; he argued (via his Weyl Curvature Hypothesis) that gravitational entropy was initially near-minimal. Magis Center arxiv

Zia H. Shah, MD, and the biophilic argument

The physician-scholar Zia H. Shah, MD, Chief Editor of The Muslim Times, has built a sustained apologetic corpus on thequran.love and themuslimtimes.info around fine-tuning. He describes the fine-tuning of the universe as “the biggest miracle that humanity has discovered in cosmology,” writing that “our universe is biophilic.” In his essay “The Creator, the Maker, the Fashioner: A Quranic Commentary for the 21st Century,” he links 59:24’s triad of names to the anthropic evidence and argues that the Qurʾān “has become the biggest argument against atheism in our times, in age of information.” In “Allah created the universe or the multiverse through mathematics بِالْحَقِّ,” he frames creation as bil-ḥaqq — “with truth, purpose, and immutable law.” His treatment of Al-Badīʿ specifically appears in commentaries on 6:101 (“How could God have a Son when He has no Consort?”), where he collates al-Ṭabarī, Mujāhid, and al-Suddī to establish badīʿ as creatio ex nihilo — “bringing the heavens and earth into existence when nothing of the sort existed before.” His related article on the kalām argument presents al-Ghazālī’s syllogism and its modern revival by Craig. Shah’s overarching thesis — that a universe with a beginning implies a Beginner, with order implies an Organizer, and with moment-to-moment dependence implies a Sustainer — maps neatly onto Al-Badīʿ (Originator), Al-Khāliq (proportioning Creator), and Al-Bāriʾ/Al-Muṣawwir. Thequran + 5

Shah also draws out a physically concrete point that resonates with Al-Badīʿ’s originality: had all substances shared a single melting point, “the entire universe would turn into a huge mass of gas, liquid, or solid.” The differentiated physical and chemical properties of matter — water’s anomalous expansion on freezing, its high specific heat, the graded melting points of the elements — are themselves unprecedented “designs” with no prior model to copy. Nabulsi

The multiverse objection and responses

The leading naturalistic response to fine-tuning is the multiverse: if there are vastly many universes with varying constants, an observer will necessarily find themselves in a life-permitting one (observer-selection / anthropic bias). Responses in the philosophical literature include: (1) the multiverse itself requires a fine-tuned universe-generating mechanism (e.g., inflation, which Barnes argues is a “cane toad solution” that worsens the entropy problem, since inflation requires even lower-entropy initial conditions); (2) the “this-universe” objection and Bayesian formulations hold that fine-tuning still confirms design over single-universe chance, since P(fine-tuning | designer) ≫ P(fine-tuning | chance); (3) the multiverse risks Boltzmann-brain absurdities. Luke Barnes and Geraint Lewis, in A Fortunate Universe (2016), survey the evidence and conclude the fine-tuning is real and not dissolved by facile appeals to “the calculation must be wrong.” John Barrow and Frank Tipler’s The Anthropic Cosmological Principle (1986) remains the foundational catalogue. Thequran CrossExamined

Epistemic honesty requires noting the dissenters: Victor Stenger argued that fine-tuning claims often vary one parameter at a time and that some apparent tunings relax when parameters co-vary; Sean Carroll holds fine-tuning is suggestive but not decisive. The Qurʾānic argument does not depend on any single datapoint but on the cumulative, convergent improbability across independent parameters — exactly the structure of 52:35–36’s trilemma applied to the constants of nature.

XI. Scientific Commentary III: The Origination of Life and 32:7

Qurʾān 32:7 joins two ideas that modern biology also joins: the perfection/optimization of created things (aḥsana kulla shayʾin khalaqahu) and the origination of the human form from humble material (badaʾa khalqa l-insāni min ṭīn, “from clay”). The “clay” motif — mineral-rich, water-bearing terrestrial matter — resonates with origin-of-life research on mineral surfaces and prebiotic chemistry, though the Qurʾān’s register is theological rather than biochemical. Zia H. Shah’s broader corpus reads such verses (alongside 71:14, khalaqakum aṭwāran, “created you in stages,” and 71:17, anbatakum min al-arḍi nabātan, “caused you to grow from the earth”) as compatible with guided, gradual evolution — an origination that unfolds through law and process while remaining, at its root, an act of the divine Originator. The word aḥsana (perfected/made most beautiful) grounds Shah’s “argument from beauty”: the aesthetic and functional optimization pervading nature is, on his reading, an empirical commentary on the Qurʾānic claim of perfected creation. Quran O + 2

XII. Epilogue: Ibdāʿ, Iʿādah, and the Response of Awe

The Qurʾān’s doctrine of Al-Badīʿ is not a cold cosmological postulate. It is bracketed on one side by ibdāʿ — origination without precedent, “Be! and it is” — and on the other by iʿādah — “He originates creation, then repeats it.” Between these two acts lies the whole drama of a universe fine-tuned for life, consciousness, and moral responsibility. The same divine originality that set the cosmological constant to one part in 10¹²⁰, that placed the Hoyle resonance where carbon could form, and that selected an initial state of unfathomable low entropy, is the originality that pledges to fold the heavens “like a scroll” and to bring forth creation anew.

The proper response the Qurʾān prescribes to the recognition of Al-Badīʿ is not merely intellectual assent but tasbīḥ and ḥamd — glorification and gratitude (35:1: “All praise is due to God, Originator of the heavens and the earth”). In the age of information, when the fine-tuning of the universe has become, in Shah’s phrase, “the biggest argument against atheism,” the ancient name Al-Badīʿ recovers a startling freshness: the cosmos is exactly what one would expect from an Originator who copies nothing, needs nothing, and wills everything into being. To contemplate the incomparable innovation of the heavens and the earth is, in the Qurʾānic vision, to be drawn from wonder to worship. Wikisource