إِذْ قَالَ ٱللَّهُ يَٰعِيسَىٰٓ إِنِّى مُتَوَفِّيكَ وَرَافِعُكَ إِلَىَّ وَمُطَهِّرُكَ مِنَ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟
Idh qāla'llāhu yā ʿĪsā innī mutawaffīka wa rāfiʿuka ilayya wa muṭahhiruka mina'lladhīna kafarū wa jāʿilu'lladhīna'ttabaʿūka fawqa'lladhīna kafarū ilā yawmi'l-qiyāmah, thumma ilayya marjiʿukum fa-aḥkumu baynakum fīmā kuntum fīhi takhtalifūn
"When God said: 'Jesus! I shall take you fully, and raise you to Myself, and purify you of those who disbelieve, and set those who follow you above those who disbelieve until the day of resurrection. Then your return is to Me; and I shall judge between you in what you differed over.'"
The root و-ف-ي: to be complete, to be without deficiency. Wafāʾ — completing; īfāʾ — giving a right in full. Form V: tawaffā — to take a thing in full.
At the centre of the root there is no death; there is taking in full. Its use for death comes from the sense of the soul's being taken complete. And the Qurʾān uses the same verb of sleep as well (al-Zumar 39/42, al-Anʿām 6/60) — treated at 39/42 in al-Zumar. I rely on that treatment.
The sense of this word here is disputed in the classical commentaries, and the disagreement has continued. I give it in a table and impose no preference:
| # | What mutawaffīka means | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | I shall cause you to die | The common use of the word; the rafʿ comes after it |
| 2 | I shall take you in full | The sense of death is not required; the root is "taking complete" |
| 3 | I shall take you in a state resembling sleep | Rests on the Qurʾān's use of the same verb for sleep |
| 4 | The order is by anticipation and postponement | "I shall raise you and (then) cause you to die" — the wāw does not convey order |
And per the method (Method) I enter a plain note: a wide theological and narrative literature has formed around this verse. That debate is not entered in this commentary. What is to be recorded is that the wording of the verse lists four acts: tawaffī, rafʿ, taṭhīr, jaʿl. And all four are ascribed to God; the subject of none of them is Jesus.
Per the method (Method) I record this: both sides in the sentence are named by an attribute — alladhīna'ttabaʿūk (those who followed you) and alladhīna kafarū (those who disbelieved). No people, nation or religious institution is named.
| Reading | What fawqa is |
|---|---|
| 1 | Superiority in proof |
| 2 | In respect of number and spread |
| 3 | In respect of position — the superiority of the argument |
I transmit what is transmitted; I impose no preference. And no present-day political or social conclusion is drawn from this.
Verses fifty-six and fifty-seven compare two outcomes; verse fifty-eight closes the block: dhālika natlūhu ʿalayka mina'l-āyāti wa'dh-dhikri'l-ḥakīm — "this We recite to you of the signs and of the wise reminder."
I record this as an observation about the word order: before the account ends, the text turns once more to the narrator — just as in verse 44 (dhālika min anbāʾi'l-ghayb). The sūra sets a note of the same kind at both ends of the account.