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Badīhiyyāt (pl. of badīhī), a term and topic in logic meaning that which is a priori (self-evident). According to the dictionaries, badīha means ‘the beginning of something’, ‘the first of anything’, ‘something that appears suddenly and for the first time’, ‘something that is evident’, ‘an intuitive perception’ and ‘the faculty of extemporising’. Some scholars have derived the root b-d-h from b-d-ʾ, suggesting that the hamza metamorphosed into a hāʾ in the morphological mutation known as ibdāl or badal (replacing one letter with another). The term badīha is used to denote the im…

Badāʾ, a theological term denoting the change of a decision or opinion ( ra⁠ʾy) and its replacement by another. Lexically, this term has the meaning of ‘appearing’, ‘arising in the mind’ or ‘becoming evident’ (Ibn Manẓūr; al-Jawharī, badā, yabdū; see also al-Jurjānī, 44): it is used in the Qurʾān in the sense of something appearing and becoming manifest (see Q 39:47–48) and also of an opinion arising in the mind (see Q 12:35). However, the ascription of badāʾ to God in the sense of His reaching a new decision and will, i.e. His revoking one decision and judgment in favou…