The Relationship Between Tawaffī and Raising

Tawaffī means complete taking, not specifically death (imāta); however, some consider it to mean death and differ regarding the order of tawaffī and raising of Jesus (a.s.): Some consider death to occur after raising; meaning God took Jesus (a.s.) to the heavens and he is still alive, and his death will occur after his descent to earth in the end times when the Dajjāl (Anti-Christ) is killed by him. Therefore, the verse should be interpreted as: “I am raising you to Myself and purifying you from those who disbelieve, then causing you to die,” and regarding the precedence of tawaffī over “raising” they say that the conjunction is with “and” (wāw) not “then” (fāʾ); the conjunctive “and” is only to show the mentioned precedence of what is being joined to over what follows, not to show sequence.(543)

In critique of this view, it must be said that the “and” (wāw) is not for indicating sequence; however, the argument that the phrases in this verse are reversed in their order requires evidence to support it.

Some have interpreted the word “raising you” (rāfiʿuka) as “raising your spirit”(544) not “raising your spirit and body,” while as previously explained, tawaffī has two instances (death and sleep) and what is common between them is complete taking, therefore tawaffī has no apparent meaning in either of these instances.