In the phrase of Surah Aale Imran (3:55), Innī mutawaffīka wa rāfi‘uka ilayya (I have decided to take your soul and lift you towards me), it is inferred that Allah Almighty had lifted Jesus (PBUH) alive, hence Jesus has not yet died and is still alive in the heavens. The argument is that in Innī mutawaffīka (I will take your soul), the meaning of death is not to cause death but to take into custody, and in rāfi‘uka ilayya (I will raise you towards me), the pronoun refers to the entire existence of Jesus, which includes both body and soul.
According to Javed Ahmed Ghamidi, the word tawaffā clearly means death, and it is incorrect to interpret it as full possession. His arguments are as follows:
Firstly, the accepted convention of language is that the meaning of words and styles is determined by their known and commonly used meanings. Likewise, the decision as to whether a word is used in its literal or figurative meaning at a particular place is also made by common convention. Therefore, the meaning of tawaffā should not be determined by looking at its various meanings in the dictionary but by observing its use in the sentence. Whatever verdict the convention of language arrives at regarding its use will be accepted.
Secondly, it is an established fact in language that the meaning of a verb used in a sentence is not determined solely based on that verb, but rather it is determined based on the relations to which that verb is attributed. The verb tawaffā carries different meanings in diverse situations. The author of Aqrab al-Mawarid has described four prominent relations for it. If any object in the form of a matter accompanies it, it implies the completion of that matter. If the word ‘period’ is its object, it means reaching the completion of that period. If the object is ‘counting people’, it implies counting people thoroughly. If Allah is the subject and the object is a human, then it means the seizure of the soul, i.e., Allah has seized his soul and given him death. In the phrase Innī mutawaffīka, the subject of tawaffā is the pronoun ‘I’ referring to Allah, and the object is ‘you’ (ka) referring to Jesus (PBUH). Thus, the verb tawaffā is emanating from Allah and is applied to a human, Jesus. In this case, it definitively means the seizure of the soul, which necessarily results in death. Thus, considering the rules of the Arabic language, the phrase cannot imply anything other than the death of Jesus (PBUH). Examples from the Qur’an and hadith also testify that when tawaffā is used in the context of Allah and a human, it means the seizure of life. There is not a single example in the Qur’an and hadith that differs from this rule of language and expression.
As far as the interpretation of rāfi‘uka ilayya (I will raise you to Myself) with regard to the notion of Jesus (PBUH) being taken up alive is considered, it is against the principles of language and articulation. Javed Ahmed Ghamidi’s stance is that neither the meaning of ‘raising’ can be determined independently from the composition of the sentence, nor can the interpretation of the following and preceding parts be based on that isolated meaning. The meanings of the two parts Rāfi‘uka ilayya wa mutahhiruka mina alladhīna kafarū will be determined based on their coordination with Innī mutawaffīka. Hence, if the meaning of tawaffā definitively is the seizure of the soul, meaning death, there is no room to extract such a meaning from the subsequent words that contradict or differ from death. On this basis, the esteemed scholar has applied the pronoun of ‘raising you’ to the body of Jesus (PBUH), from which the soul was seized. According to him, this particular treatment with Jesus (PBUH) was done in order to protect his pure body from any tampering or desecration.