تعدد القدماء

تَعَدُّد‎ (taʿaddud, “being more than one, manifoldness”) + قُدَماء‎ (qudamāʾ, “old ones, eternal ones”).

تَعَدُّدُ الْقُدَماءِ • (taʿaddudu l-qudamāʾi) m

1. (Islam, philosophy) “manifoldness of eternal entities”: the idea that anything other than God the Creator himself is eternal without beginning; the term has been used by critics, such as the rationalist Mu'tazila, to qualify the following Sunni dogma as contrary to monotheism: namely that God’s characteristics, such as omnipotence or omniscience, and also the Quran are not themselves God, but are nevertheless eternal and uncreated