The Ninety-Nine Names · the 95th name
الْبَدِيع
Al-Badi'
The Incomparable Originator
- The rootب د ع
- From the rootbada'a: to originate something with no prior example; the root behind bid'ah, innovation
The essay
To originate without a model. The word means invention in the strict sense: not assembling what exists, but bringing about what had no precedent. The Qur'an says it of the heavens and the earth, and then adds the mechanism, which is not a mechanism: when He decrees a matter, He says to it Be, and it is. The same root gives the word for innovation in religion, which is condemned for exactly this reason. Origination is His.
In the Qur'an
بَدِيعُ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلۡأَرۡضِۖ وَإِذَا قَضَىٰٓ أَمۡرٗا فَإِنَّمَا يَقُولُ لَهُۥ كُن فَيَكُونُ
Originator of the heavens and the earth. When He decrees a thing, He only says to it: Be, and it is.
this Name is in the Qur’an
What it asks of you
Originality is not available to you and is not required of you. Faithfulness is.
Read beside it
The words