Page 169 - The Prophet Jesus (pbuh) Did Not Die

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HARUN YAHYA

we made clear in our analysis of this verse, the word carries

different senses than the English word death. An analysis of
how tawaffaa is used in the Qur'an makes this clear. We have
already looked at Surat az-Zumar:42 in connection with
this. Now, we will consider another verse that uses tawaffaa
in the same sense:
He takes you back to Himself at night [yatawaffakum],
while knowing the things you perpetrate during the day,
and then wakes you up again, so that a specified term may
be fulfilled. (Surat al-An'am:60)

As Allah states in this verse, He takes the souls of
sleeping people. While asleep, people do not die in the nor-
mally accepted sense; the soul merely leaves the body for a
different dimension for a brief period of time. If this is con-
sidered biological death, then the Prophet Jesus (pbuh) died
every night of his lifetime. Moreover, this would be true of
all people. Clearly, the verse is not saying this.
According to the majority view, tawaffaa is used in the
sense of sleep. Therefore, the verse means: "I shall cause you
to sleep." In conclusion, we can say that the Prophet Jesus

(pbuh) was placed in a state similar to sleep, was raised to
Allah's Presence while alive, and that he merely departed
from this dimension. (Allah knows the truth.)
The contemporary Islamic scholar Muhammad Khalil
Herras made the following comment:
The word tawaffaa in this verse does not mean "death," but
"putting one into a state resembling sleep." If we accept