The Qur’anic Root B D ʾ (badʾ and ibdāʾ)
Beginning and bringing forth initially: from starting an act and taking the initiative to first creation and its renewal
Qur’anic and lexical forms
بَدَأَ
(badaʾa)
Form I perfect occurring in the selected text
بَدَأَكُمْ
(badaʾakum)
Perfect with an object pronoun; Al-Aʿrāf 7:29
بَدَأْنَا
(badaʾnā)
First-person plural perfect; Al-Anbiyāʾ 21:104
بَدَءُوكُمْ
(badaʾūkum)
Plural perfect with an object pronoun; Al-Tawbah 9:13
فَبَدَأَ
(fa-badaʾa)
Perfect with fa-; Yūsuf 12:76
يَبْدَأُ
(yabdaʾu)
Form I imperfect in the selected text
يُبْدِئُ
(yubdiʾu)
Form IV imperfect; three occurrences in the selected text
بَدْء
(badʾ)
Lexical and poetic verbal noun; absent as a noun from the selected text
بَادِئَ الرَّأْيِ
(bādiʾa al-raʾy)
Hamzated reading of Hūd 11:27, outside the fifteen-occurrence count
1. Introducing the root and its Qur’anic forms
Arabic B D ʾ concerns beginning, doing something initially and setting a process in motion from its starting point. It applies to ordinary human activities and, in the Qur’an, to the beginning of creation by The God.
Badaʾa can describe starting one act before another or a group taking the initiative against others. With al-khalq as its object, it concerns beginning creation. The root does not necessarily mean creating by itself: that sense follows from khalq and the attribution of the act to The God.
The selected Qur’anic text contains fifteen occurrences in fourteen verses across eleven surahs: twelve form I verbs and three form IV verbs. All are verbal. Nominal forms such as badʾ, bidāyah, bādiʾ and mubdiʾ do not occur as such in this selected text.
The main Qur’anic forms are:
- Badaʾa, badaʾakum, badaʾnā, badaʾūkum and fa-badaʾa: form I perfect forms.
- Yabdaʾu: a form I imperfect.
- Yubdiʾu: a form IV imperfect.
Badaʾa concerns beginning; abdaʾa likewise concerns beginning or bringing forth initially. Their semantic ranges overlap, and both occur in creation passages. The morphological difference alone does not restrict one to natural beginnings and the other to divine creation.
Three settings stand out: starting an act or taking the initiative in human conduct; beginning creation and restoring it; and denying falsehood’s capacity or effectiveness in wa-mā yubdiʾu al-bāṭilu wa-mā yuʿīd.
2. The semantic core in earlier Arabic
Beginning and opening an action’s first stage
In Maqāyīs al-Lughah, Ibn Fāris writes:
«الْبَاءُ وَالدَّالُ وَالْهَمْزَةُ مِنِ افْتِتَاحِ الشَّيْءِ»
al-bāʾu wa-l-dālu wa-l-hamzatu mini iftitāḥi al-shayʾi
That is, bāʾ, dāl and hamzah concern the beginning or opening of something.
He then places badaʾtu bi-l-amr and ibtadaʾtu within this family.
Iftitāḥ here means beginning, not necessarily opening a physical door or splitting an object. Someone can begin speaking, travelling, writing, fighting or another activity without anything bodily opening.
Lisān al-ʿArab likewise says:
«الْبَدْءُ: فِعْلُ الشَّيْءِ أَوَّلَ»
al-badʾu fiʿlu al-shayʾi awwala
That is, badʾ means doing something at the outset.
The same entry records badaʾa, abdaʾa and ibtadaʾa in the sense of beginning.
These witnesses identify priority in performing an act and its commencement. What begins may be speech, movement, social conduct or creation.
Does badaʾa always mean bringing something from nonexistence?
No. That restriction does not fit Arabic evidence or Qur’anic uses.
Beginning to speak establishes a starting point for speech; badaʾa alone does not mean the speaker has never spoken before.
Likewise, beginning a new journey does not make someone the first human ever to travel.
Beginning an act must therefore be distinguished from beginning the creation of something not previously existing. The latter can apply in a divine-creation context, but the root alone does not supply all its details.
The Qur’an similarly uses this family for beginning the examination of Joseph’s brothers’ baggage, a group initiating hostility, and The God beginning creation.
Their shared element is starting and a stage being first relative to what follows, rather than all describing creation from nothing.
3. Earlier Arabic: first action, precedence and renewed action
A pre-Islamic poetic witness: badʾ against ʿawd
Ṭarafah ibn al-ʿAbd’s Muʿallaqah praises a sharp, effective sword:
حُسَامٍ إِذَا مَا قُمْتُ مُنْتَصِرًا بِهِ
ḥusāmin idhā mā qumtu muntaṣiran bihi
كَفَى الْعَوْدَ مِنْهُ الْبَدْءُ لَيْسَ بِمِعْضَدِ
kafā al-ʿawda minhu al-badʾu laysa bi-miʿḍadi
Translation: “A cutting sword: when I rise with it to vindicate myself, its first stroke saves me a second—it is no dull woodcutting blade.”
The line occurs in Ṭarafah’s Dīwān and earlier Muʿallaqah commentaries, including al-Zawzanī’s. They explain badʾ as the first stroke and ʿawd as returning for another. Miʿḍad denotes an inferior or blunt sword used to cut trees; translation should retain that image too.
This is particularly useful because the contrast of badʾ and ʿawd also appears in Qur’anic creation and renewal passages.
Their settings nevertheless differ: Ṭarafah concerns a first and second sword stroke; the creation verses concern bringing beings forth and restoring them.
Badʾ itself therefore does not mean creation. The pre-Qur’anic witness establishes a familiar relationship between beginning an action and returning to or repeating it.
It does not make every ʿawd an entirely identical repetition. A second stroke could differ from the first yet still be ʿawd. Beginning and return are temporally and semantically related without every detail being identical.
Badʾ in social precedence
Arabic also applies al-badʾ to someone foremost in rank and standing.
Aws ibn Maghrāʾ says:
ثُنْيَانُنَا إِنْ أَتَاهُمْ كَانَ بَدْأَهُمُ
thunyānunā in atāhum kāna badʾahumu
وَبَدْؤُهُمْ إِنْ أَتَانَا كَانَ ثُنْيَانَا
wa-badʾuhum in atānā kāna thunyānā
Translation: “Our second-ranking man, if he went to them, would be their foremost; their foremost, if he came to us, would rank second.”
The line occurs in literary and lexical sources, including Ṭabaqāt Fuḥūl al-Shuʿarāʾ and Lisān al-ʿArab. Aws lived across the pre-Islamic and Islamic periods; this particular line is not securely dated before the Qur’an.
Badʾ here concerns first rank rather than the start of a bodily movement. Being first can apply to social precedence as well as temporal sequence.
Superiority and greatness are nevertheless not necessary components of the root. Someone may begin a wrongful act, as with initiating hostility in Al-Tawbah 9:13.
Other recorded uses
Lisān al-ʿArab also records badʾ and badaʾah for a share of camel meat, alongside expressions for a first turn, a beginning and what first comes to mind or view.
Badīʾ can denote something remarkable or unusual. Ibn Fāris proposes that what is remarkable receives attention before other things because of its striking quality.
This is a lexicographer’s semantic explanation rather than proven historical derivation.
A dictionary’s recording of a form does not establish its currency in every period or at revelation with that same sense.
The family thus extends intelligibly from beginning an act to a first turn, precedence and beginning a process anew. No particular physical origin such as cutting, splitting or moving a body part has been established.
4. Beginning in human conduct
Two Qur’anic uses matter because they do not concern creation’s beginning. They prevent defining every badaʾa form through the theological notion of bringing forth from nonexistence.
A. Al-Tawbah 9:13: initiating hostility
Al-Tawbah 9:13
أَلَا تُقَاتِلُونَ قَوْمًا نَكَثُوا أَيْمَانَهُمْ وَهَمُّوا بِإِخْرَاجِ الرَّسُولِ وَهُمْ بَدَءُوكُمْ أَوَّلَ مَرَّةٍ ۚ أَتَخْشَوْنَهُمْ ۚ فَاللَّهُ أَحَقُّ أَنْ تَخْشَوْهُ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ مُؤْمِنِينَ
alā tuqātilūna qawman nakathū aymānahum wa-hammū bi-ikhrāji al-rasūli wa-hum badaʾūkum awwala marratin a-takhshawnahum fa-llāhu aḥaqqu an takhshawhu in kuntum muʾminīna
Translation: “Will you not fight people who broke their oaths, intended to expel the Messenger, and were the ones who first began against you? Do you fear them? The God has a greater claim to your reverent fear, if you are believers.”
Badaʾūkum is a third-person masculine plural perfect with the object pronoun -kum.
Awwala marratin independently foregrounds the first occurrence.
Badaʾa itself does not mean fighting. Hostility or aggression follows from the context: broken oaths and the intention to expel the Messenger precede it, and the question of fighting that group follows.
Here badaʾūkum therefore concerns their taking the initiative in hostile dealings.
Merely translating “attacked you” may convey the setting but weaken the verb’s beginning and initiative.
“They first began against you” stays close to the construction, while commentary identifies the hostile action involved.
The verse also names broken oaths as a reason for fighting. These qualities belong together; badaʾa alone must not become an unrestricted rule of war.
Beginning has no inherent positive or negative value. Beginning a just act may be commendable and initiating aggression blameworthy. The act and its circumstances establish that value.
B. Yūsuf 12:76: beginning with one particular item
Yūsuf 12:76
فَبَدَأَ بِأَوْعِيَتِهِمْ قَبْلَ وِعَاءِ أَخِيهِ ثُمَّ اسْتَخْرَجَهَا مِنْ وِعَاءِ أَخِيهِ ۚ كَذَٰلِكَ كِدْنَا لِيُوسُفَ ۖ مَا كَانَ لِيَأْخُذَ أَخَاهُ فِي دِينِ الْمَلِكِ إِلَّا أَنْ يَشَاءَ اللَّهُ ۚ نَرْفَعُ دَرَجَاتٍ مَنْ نَشَاءُ ۗ وَفَوْقَ كُلِّ ذِي عِلْمٍ عَلِيمٌ
fa-badaʾa bi-awʿiyatihim qabla wiʿāʾi akhīhi thumma istakhrajahā min wiʿāʾi akhīhi kadhālika kidnā li-yūsufa mā kāna li-yaʾkhudha akhāhu fī dīni al-maliki illā an yashāʾa llāhu narfaʿu darajātin man nashāʾu wa-fawqa kulli dhī ʿilmin ʿalīmun
Translation: “He began with their containers before his brother’s, then brought it out from his brother’s container. Thus We devised for Joseph. He could not have detained his brother under the king’s law unless The God willed. We raise in degrees whom We will; above every possessor of knowledge is one who knows.”
Fa-badaʾa states that an activity began. Bi-awʿiyatihim identifies what he started with through bi-.
The story concerns examining Joseph’s brothers’ containers and baggage. Qabla wiʿāʾi akhīhi specifies the order of examination.
Badaʾa alone does not mean searching, inspecting or extracting something. Inspection follows from the narrative, and extraction is separately expressed by istakhrajahā.
Beginning here means choosing the first point within an activity with several stages.
Even with qabla, “before,” badaʾa need not mean the first event in all history. A beginning may be relative to a limited set of actions.
“He began with the first room,” for example, concerns the order of examining rooms rather than asserting no act had previously occurred in the world.
This also helps with creation verses: a beginning is relative to a specified activity or set of things, whose object must be identified in each passage.
5. Yabdaʾu al-khalqa thumma yuʿīduhu: first creation and its renewal
Most occurrences concern creation. Badaʾa and abdaʾa accompany khalq and usually contrast with aʿāda.
A. Beginning creation and restoring it
Yūnus 10:4
إِلَيْهِ مَرْجِعُكُمْ جَمِيعًا ۖ وَعْدَ اللَّهِ حَقًّا ۚ إِنَّهُ يَبْدَأُ الْخَلْقَ ثُمَّ يُعِيدُهُ لِيَجْزِيَ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ بِالْقِسْطِ ۚ وَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا لَهُمْ شَرَابٌ مِنْ حَمِيمٍ وَعَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ بِمَا كَانُوا يَكْفُرُونَ
ilayhi marjiʿukum jamīʿan waʿda llāhi ḥaqqan innahu yabdaʾu al-khalqa thumma yuʿīduhu li-yajziya alladhīna āmanū wa-ʿamilū al-ṣāliḥāti bi-l-qisṭi wa-alladhīna kafarū lahum sharābun min ḥamīmin wa-ʿadhābun alīmun bi-mā kānū yakfurūna
Translation: “To Him is the return of you all: the promise of The God in truth. He begins creation, then restores it, to recompense with justice those who believe and do good deeds. For those who disbelieve there is a drink of boiling water and painful punishment because of their disbelief.”
Yabdaʾu and yuʿīdu share a subject. Al-khalq is the first verb’s object, and -hu in yuʿīduhu refers to that creation.
The contrast makes a clear relationship: creation is first brought forth and subsequently restored.
Root meanings remain distinct from the whole verse’s conclusion. Badaʾa concerns beginning and aʿāda restoring; al-khalq supplies creation, while the context supplies resurrection and recompense.
Restoration is related here to just judgment of human deeds. The verse gives not only creative capacity but also a purpose for restoring people.
Li-yajziya supplies that purpose, rather than badaʾa itself.
B. Beginning creation and alleged partners
Yūnus 10:34
قُلْ هَلْ مِنْ شُرَكَائِكُمْ مَنْ يَبْدَأُ الْخَلْقَ ثُمَّ يُعِيدُهُ ۚ قُلِ اللَّهُ يَبْدَأُ الْخَلْقَ ثُمَّ يُعِيدُهُ ۖ فَأَنَّىٰ تُؤْفَكُونَ
qul hal min shurakāʾikum man yabdaʾu al-khalqa thumma yuʿīduhu quli llāhu yabdaʾu al-khalqa thumma yuʿīduhu fa-annā tuʾfakūna
Translation: “Say: ‘Is there among your alleged partners anyone who begins creation and then restores it?’ Say: ‘The God begins creation and then restores it; how, then, are you turned away from truth?’”
The root occurs twice: first in the question about partners, then in the answer attributing initiation and restoration to The God.
Yabdaʾu has the same lexical meaning in both places. The difference concerns the supposed agent: do the claimed partners possess this capacity, or does it belong to The God?
The passage tests claims about partners through their actual capacity.
Its affirmation of divine oneness therefore exceeds badaʾa’s independent meaning. The root supplies beginning, which the verse uses within an argument about creative power.
Al-Naml 27:64 has the same construction, followed by provision from heaven and earth and a demand for proof.
Beginning creation and being able to restore it thus demonstrate divine power and the groundlessness of partner claims. Al-Rūm 30:11 likewise places beginning creation, restoring it and the audience’s return to Him together.
C. Observing creation’s beginning and the possibility of renewal
Al-ʿAnkabūt 29:20
قُلْ سِيرُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ فَانْظُرُوا كَيْفَ بَدَأَ الْخَلْقَ ۚ ثُمَّ اللَّهُ يُنْشِئُ النَّشْأَةَ الْآخِرَةَ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ
qul sīrū fī al-arḍi fa-nẓurū kayfa badaʾa al-khalqa thumma llāhu yunshiʾu al-nashʾata al-ākhirata inna llāha ʿalā kulli shayʾin qadīrun
Translation: “Say: ‘Travel through the earth and observe how He began creation. Then The God brings forth the other creation. The God is capable of all things.’”
Badaʾa appears here beside an invitation to travel and observe on earth.
People are called to move through the earth and consider how creation began, followed by al-nashʾata al-ākhirah.
Two families occur: B D ʾ for beginning creation and N SH ʾ for bringing forth the other creation.
They are related in a creation context, without being complete synonyms. Badaʾa foregrounds an initial stage; anshaʾa, bringing forth or establishing.
The verse does not claim one particular earthly observation reveals every detail of the universe’s beginning. Creation is the object of observation and reflection, but no detailed scientific method or natural history is set out in the phrase.
The value of observing and examining the world can therefore be understood without making a contemporary scientific theory badaʾa’s direct meaning.
Al-ʿAnkabūt 29:19 uses form IV yubdiʾu for creation’s beginning and restoration.
Using both yabdaʾu and yubdiʾu within the same subject undermines a rigid distinction such as one meaning only a temporal beginning and the other only creation from nothing.
D. Wa-huwa ahwanu ʿalayhi: beginning and restoration
Al-Rūm 30:27
وَهُوَ الَّذِي يَبْدَأُ الْخَلْقَ ثُمَّ يُعِيدُهُ وَهُوَ أَهْوَنُ عَلَيْهِ ۚ وَلَهُ الْمَثَلُ الْأَعْلَىٰ فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ ۚ وَهُوَ الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ
wa-huwa alladhī yabdaʾu al-khalqa thumma yuʿīduhu wa-huwa ahwanu ʿalayhi wa-lahu al-mathalu al-aʿlā fī al-samāwāti wa-l-arḍi wa-huwa al-ʿazīzu al-ḥakīmu
Translation: “He is the One who begins creation, then restores it, and that is easier for Him. His is the highest description in the heavens and earth, and He is the Mighty, the Wise.”
Ahwanu occurs beside badaʾa and aʿāda.
Grammatically it is an elative form, directly expressing greater ease.
Earlier commentaries differ over the comparison. Some explain it through human understanding of beginning and repeating an act, repetition ordinarily seeming easier to people.
Others emphasize that the expression must not imply greater effort for first creation and less effort for restoration on His part.
Al-Ṭabarī transmits both directions, including explaining ahwan as hayyin, easy, with both acts easy, alongside the comparative account of restoration being easier.
Neither changes badaʾa’s meaning. The root states nothing about creation’s difficulty or ease; ahwanu in the following clause supplies the comparison.
A philosophical difficulty should not lead to deleting ahwanu’s explicit comparison without reason. Translation can preserve it while commentary separately assesses how the comparison is understood.
6. Badaʾa khalqa al-insān: beginning human creation
Al-Sajdah 32:7
الَّذِي أَحْسَنَ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ خَلَقَهُ وَبَدَأَ خَلْقَ الْإِنْسَانِ مِنْ طِينٍ
alladhī aḥsana kulla shayʾin khalaqahu wa-badaʾa khalqa al-insāni min ṭīnin
Translation: “The One who made good everything He created, and began the creation of the human being from clay.”
Badaʾa concerns human creation; min ṭīn identifies its stated material or origin.
The root alone names neither clay nor the human body. Khalqa al-insān and min ṭīn supply those details.
Al-Sajdah 32:8 then concerns human progeny and its being made from sulālatin min māʾin mahīn.
The sequence distinguishes first human creation from the continuation of progeny in its expression. Badaʾa alone does not explain every detail of the distinction.
The root cannot by itself establish that every person was directly and immediately made from clay or that the verse describes every biological stage of human origins.
The wording states the beginning from clay and separately describes progeny’s continuation. Explaining how requires other passages and independent evidence.
7. First beginning and restoration within resurrection imagery
Al-Anbiyāʾ 21:104
يَوْمَ نَطْوِي السَّمَاءَ كَطَيِّ السِّجِلِّ لِلْكُتُبِ ۚ كَمَا بَدَأْنَا أَوَّلَ خَلْقٍ نُعِيدُهُ ۚ وَعْدًا عَلَيْنَا ۚ إِنَّا كُنَّا فَاعِلِينَ
yawma naṭwī al-samāʾa ka-ṭayyi al-sijilli li-l-kutubi kamā badaʾnā awwala khalqin nuʿīduhu waʿdan ʿalaynā innā kunnā fāʿilīna
Translation: “The day We roll up the heaven as a scroll is rolled for writings: as We began the first creation, We restore it. A promise binding upon Us; We shall indeed fulfil it.”
Badaʾnā is a first-person plural perfect; awwala khalqin names the first creation.
Why does awwal occur beside badaʾa when the latter already concerns beginning?
They belong to different families: badaʾa expresses beginning an act; awwal identifies first position in an order.
Together they can emphasize the creation’s initial character, without either word being pointless.
Kamā relates beginning and restoration, but the comparison alone does not specify every detail of renewal.
The root does not establish that every particle, event sequence and bodily feature must recur identically. The passage concerns the capacity to restore creation and fulfil the divine promise.
Rolling up the heaven requires separate study: naṭwī and ka-ṭayyi al-sijilli li-l-kutub supply that image, not badaʾa.
Kamā badaʾakum taʿūdūn
Al-Aʿrāf 7:29 expresses the relationship more briefly:
«كَمَا بَدَأَكُمْ تَعُودُونَ»
kamā badaʾakum taʿūdūna
That is: “As He began you, you return.”
The surrounding verse concerns justice, worship and making devotion exclusive to The God.
Other creation and restoration passages support understanding a return after initial life. Taʿūdūna nevertheless belongs to ʿ W D; its meaning must not be made part of badaʾa.
Kamā again relates beginning and return without describing the return’s bodily manner in this short phrase.
8. Yubdiʾu wa-yuʿīd: form IV and divine descriptions
Al-Burūj 85:13
إِنَّهُ هُوَ يُبْدِئُ وَيُعِيدُ
innahu huwa yubdiʾu wa-yuʿīdu
Translation: “He is indeed the One who begins and restores.”
Both yubdiʾu and yuʿīdu are form IV.
Unlike some other passages, the first verb has no explicitly stated object. Beginning and restoring creation are clear contextual instances across the Qur’an, but this phrase itself names no object.
“Begins and restores” can therefore stand in a close translation, while commentary explains creation and renewal through other passages.
Lexicons and theological writings include al-Mubdiʾ among divine descriptions: the One beginning creation. Al-Muʿīd likewise concerns restoring it.
An important distinction remains: the Qur’an uses yubdiʾu of The God but does not use the nominal al-Mubdiʾ itself.
A root article must not make al-Mubdiʾ an exact Qur’anic nominal occurrence merely to match familiar lists of divine names.
The act clearly establishes beginning as a divine attribute; fixing it as a name within a particular list is a separate question.
Nor does form IV versus form I establish two independent kinds of creation. Al-Burūj 85:13 uses yubdiʾu and Yūnus 10:4 yabdaʾu; both fit beginning and restoring creation.
9. Wa-mā yubdiʾu al-bāṭilu wa-mā yuʿīd: falsehood and beginning or return
Sabaʾ 34:49
قُلْ جَاءَ الْحَقُّ وَمَا يُبْدِئُ الْبَاطِلُ وَمَا يُعِيدُ
qul jāʾa al-ḥaqqu wa-mā yubdiʾu al-bāṭilu wa-mā yuʿīdu
Translation: “Say: ‘Truth has come; falsehood neither begins anything nor restores it.’”
Its setting differs from creation’s beginning.
Al-bāṭil is yubdiʾu’s subject, whereas the preceding passages attribute beginning and restoration to The God.
Commentaries offer two main directions of explanation.
Al-Ṭabarī connects it with falsehood’s inability to originate or restore creation, transmitting reports interpreting falsehood as Iblīs.
Another account has falsehood accomplishing nothing when truth arrives: nothing remains for it to initiate, and it cannot recover its former effect. This concerns falsehood’s defeat and ineffectiveness.
Is yubdiʾu restricted to creation here?
The verb itself imposes no such restriction.
Al-Tawbah 9:13 and Yūsuf 12:76 already show beginning applied to human conduct and activity.
Since Sabaʾ 34:49 supplies no object, khalq must not immediately be inserted as though explicitly present.
Pairing yubdiʾu and yuʿīdu nevertheless permits comparison with creation passages using the same pair.
Creative incapacity is therefore an interpretation worth examining, without being the phrase’s only possible literal meaning.
Nor does this mean falsehood has no worldly social or historical effects. The Qur’an addresses deception, misguidance, injustice and corruption. Denying falsehood’s capacity before truth or divine creative power does not deny every harmful consequence of false conduct.
Badaʾa still concerns beginning. The negative construction denies falsehood’s power and standing before truth.
10. Distinguishing B D ʾ and B D W
Some derivatives resemble one another in writing and pronunciation, but their basic meanings differ.
B D ʾ, badʾ, concerns beginning.
B D W, buduww, concerns appearing, becoming manifest and emerging from concealment.
Ibn Fāris treats them separately: beginning for B D ʾ, appearance for B D W.
Bādiya al-raʾy and bādiʾa al-raʾy in Hūd 11:27
A reading variation helps distinguish the roots.
For unhamzated bādiya al-raʾy, one analysis connects bādiya with B D W and apparent judgment. Some grammarians also allow the unhamzated form to result from easing the hamzated form, so absence of hamzah alone does not determine the root conclusively. The corpus classification of the selected text places this occurrence under B D W.
With hamzah, bādiʾa belongs to B D ʾ and foregrounds an initial view or first impression. Among the seven readers, this hamzated reading is attributed to Abū ʿAmr; the unhamzated form occurs in the text used for the present count.
Al-Ṭabarī reports the difference, distinguishing apparent judgment from an initial judgment.
A transmitted reading can thus affect root assignment and semantic direction.
Bādiʾa is nevertheless excluded from the selected text’s fifteen-occurrence morphological count. Counting that text and examining other readings are separate tasks.
Surface resemblance is therefore insufficient: a word meaning appearance should not be assigned to B D ʾ merely because it resembles a form associated with beginning. Related-looking historical forms must be checked in their own construction and transmitted reading.
12. Translation proposals for Forqan
“Begin” is the basic equivalent of B D ʾ, fitting most human uses and many creation passages.
Badaʾūkum in Al-Tawbah 9:13 concerns initiating action against the audience. “First began against you” or, more explicitly, “first initiated hostility against you” may fit, with the latter naming hostility supplied by context.
Fa-badaʾa bi-awʿiyatihim in Yūsuf 12:76 can be “he began with their containers.” The narrative supplies inspection’s details.
“Begins creation” renders yabdaʾu al-khalqa directly. “Brings creation forth initially” also clarifies the sense while adding an explanation of originating to beginning.
Yubdiʾu llāhu al-khalqa in Al-ʿAnkabūt 29:19 likewise suits “The God begins creation.” Form IV alone requires no artificial difference in translation.
Because Al-Burūj 85:13 supplies no object, “He begins and restores” closely follows the wording. Commentary can explain its creation context.
Sabaʾ 34:49 should likewise not acquire an unstated object without reason. “Falsehood neither begins anything nor restores it” retains the verbs’ basic senses and permits examination of the phrase’s range.
“Appears” must not replace “begins” unless the form actually belongs to B D W or a transmitted alternative reading supports that analysis.
13. Conclusion
Arabic B D ʾ concerns beginning and an activity’s first stage, in ordinary acts, initiative, first creation and restoration.
Earlier poetry contrasts badʾ and ʿawd for a first stroke, act or turn. The Qur’an retains this general meaning.
Al-Tawbah 9:13 concerns initiating hostility; Yūsuf 12:76, beginning the containers’ inspection. The root is therefore not inherently restricted to creation or divine acts.
In creation passages, khalq and the contrast with aʿāda yield creation’s beginning and restoration. The Qur’an uses this relationship for divine power, resurrection’s possibility and answering partner claims.
Sabaʾ 34:49 applies form IV yubdiʾu to falsehood, further showing that even this pattern is not exclusively about creation.
Beginning, B D ʾ, must also remain distinct from appearing, B D W. Hūd 11:27’s bādiya/bādiʾa reading variation shows why this matters.
An appropriate final definition for Forqan:
Arabic B D ʾ concerns beginning, doing something initially and starting an activity or process. The Qur’an uses it for both human initiative and The God beginning creation. Creation passages often contrast it with aʿāda, relating first beginning to restoration. Creation, resurrection and divine judgment follow from the verb’s object and the passages’ contexts, rather than the root invariably meaning creation from nonexistence.