Explaining the Quranic verse,
(please note all references given count bismillah as the first verse)
Hazrat Abd Allah Ibn Abbas is recorded as saying:When Allah said, ‘O Jesus, I will cause thee to die (Mutawaffi) a natural death and will raise (Rafa) thee to Myself, and will clear thee from the charges of those who disbelieve, and will place those who follow thee above those who disbelieve, until the Day of Resurrection; then to Me shall be your return, and I will judge between you concerning that wherein you differHoly Qur'an, Chapter 3, verse 56
Ibn Abbas said: mutawaffi-ka means ‘I will cause thee to die (mumitu-ka) (Bukhari, Kitab al-Tafsir)
Challenge by Hazrat Mirza Gulam Ahmad the Promised Messiah a.s:
It is further clear on the authority of sixteen verses of the Holy Qur’an, and a number of Ahadith contained in Bukhari, Muslim and other authentic compilations, that those who die are never sent back to dwell in this world, nor is anyone subjected to death twice, nor does the Holy Qur’an lay down any law of inheritance for anyone who might return to earth after death. Yet some of the divines insist that Jesus son of Mary has not died but was raised bodily to heaven, and is alive in his physical body. They dare to suggest that the expression Tawaffi, which has been applied to Jesusasin the Holy Qur’an, does not con-note death, rather it means taking full possession of both body and soul. But this interpretation is utterly false. In the idiom of the Holy Qur’an, this expression is consistently employed to connote taking possession of the soul and the death of the body. The same idiom is employed in all the Ahadith and sayings of the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.)Ever since the Arabian peninsula has been populated and the Arabic language has come into use, there is not a single ancient or modern instance of the expression Tawaffi being employed taking possession of the body. Whenever this expression has been employed for the description of the action of God Almighty in relation to a human being, it has always connoted death and taking possession of the soul.No lexicon and no Arabic saying contradicts this. There is not the slightest room for any different interpretation. If anyone should cite a single instance from the Holy Qur’an or from the Ahadith or from ancient or modern poetry, or ode, or prose of the Arabs, wherein the expression Tawaffi has been employed when indicating the action of God Almighty concerning a human being, as connoting anything beyond death and taking possession of the soul, that is to say, as connoting the taking possession of the body also, I call God to witness that I shall hand over to such a person one thousand rupees in cash and also acknowledge that he possesses expert knowledge of Hadith and the Holy Qur’an.
[Izala-e-Auham, Ruhani Khaza’in, vol. 3, pp. 602-603]
