Appearance
The Death of Jesus
Jesus adds that to guarantee the implementation of the call to monotheistic lordship (tawḥīd rubūbī), as long as he was among them, he himself was a witness to their deeds: “And I was a witness to them so long as I was among them” (wa-kuntu ʿalayhim shahīdan mā dumtu fīhim), and after that You were the watcher over them and witness to everything: “But when You had taken me away, You Yourself were watchful over them, and You are witness to all things” (fa-lammā tawaffaytanī kunta anta al-raqīb ʿalayhim wa-anta ʿalā kulli shayʾin shahīd).
The expression “But when You had taken me away” (fa-lammā tawaffaytanī), which refers to the death (wafāt) of Jesus the Messiah, is not a sign and proof of the death (fawt) and departure of that personage from the world, because firstly, in this verse the speech is about taking away (tawaffī) not death (fawt), and taking away (tawaffī) is different from death (fawt), and the root, form, and meaning of these two words are different: tawaffī is from the root “wafī” meaning “mithāl wāwī” and fawt is from the root “fāt” meaning “ajwaf wāwī”; fawt in the meaning of death (mawt), means loss and severance of the soul’s connection from the body and corruption of the body; but tawaffī means taking charge of the soul, and this does not necessarily require the death of the body. For this reason, tawaffī has been used both regarding sleep and death, just as God has attributed tawaffī in the state of sleep to Himself and says: Whoever dies, God takes possession of his soul, and those whose time of death has not yet come, God takes their souls in the state of sleep: “God takes the souls at the time of their death, and those who have not died in their sleep.”(333)
Secondly, assuming that tawaffī is proof of Jesus’s death, since the question and answer in the verse under discussion relates to the Day of Resurrection, one cannot derive the time of trust from the sentence “But when You had taken me away” (fa-lammā tawaffaytanī) and understand when Jesus’s death was.
In summary:
The use of the phrase tawaffī is not proof of death (mawt).
Assuming it is proof of death, its date (of death) is not specified, because this conversation takes place at the Resurrection.
God is an absolute witness; both before the taking away (tawaffī) of the Messiah and after it.
After the taking away of that personage, God alone is witness to the deeds of the Christians.
The mentioned limitation is in terms of before and after the taking away of Jesus the Messiah; not in terms of before and after death.
Whether the appearance of Jesus the Messiah during the time of the government of the Mahdi, the promised one who is present, is by way of descent (hubūṭ) or by way of return (rujūʿ - rajʿa), is another matter that is the responsibility of independent research.(334)