Lit. ‘origination’. Since the Qur’an describes God as ‘Originator’ (badīʿ, see Q. 2:117), Ismaili Neoplatonists such as al-Nasafī (d. 661/1262-1263), al-Sijistānī (d. after 971) and al-Rāzī (d. 934) used the derived term ibdāʿ to develop the Neoplatonist idea that God makes existents out of non-existence in a one-off, unparalleled act.
