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Truth for Ahmadis - حقیقت احمدیہ
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Tawaffa for beginnersINTRODUCTION: SIGNIFICANCE AND RELATIONSHIP OF THE WORD "TAWAFFA" TO JESUS CHRIST'S DEATH To be like Jesus he would either have to produce miricles of his own, or deny that Jesus ever performed any in the first place – predictably, he chose the latter. (This is not, hoever, the topic of this article). It would also be of benefit to him (although not necessary) to show that Jesus is in fact dead (the traditional view of the entire Ummah at that time was and is still that jesus is alive in the Heavens), so that the biggest doubt in the hearts of muslims about his claim of being the messiah could be destroyed. Thus he argued that Jesus was dead. He then went about seeking ayaat from the Quran to prove this 'Jesus is dead' theory. Many of these ayaat revolved around the word under discussion, "tawaffa". He used this word to prove the Jesus was dead. It is this word that I now wish to explain. |
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Tawaffa For Beginners (Part 2)
The word "tawaffa" essentially means for something "to arrive at its fulfillment", like the period of time being fulfilled of a person's months and days on Earth. The word is also used to mean "to take or receive in full" like in "tawaffaytu al-mal" meaning "I received the money in full". Actually, these two meanings are very close to each other.
1) When referring to the PERMENANT taking of the soul it means death.
2) When referring to the TEMPORARY taking of the soul it means sleep.
Muslims and Ahmadies both agree up to this point. They also usually agree on when death is meant and when sleep is meant. The difference arises, howver, on the verses relating to Jesus. Ahmadies argue that the word continues to take one of these two meanings, whereas muslims argue that a unique third meaning must be used for Jesus,
3) When referring to the taking of both body and soul TOGETHER, it refers exclusively to the physical ascension of Christ. The significance of this third meaning is that Jesus is still alive, albeit in Heaven, as his soul has not left his body.
MGA needed to argue that this third meaning is unfair and incorrect. N.B. There is no fourth meaning of taking the body only - that would be absurd, as agreed by both sides.
THE CRITERIA FOR KNOWING WHICH OF THE THREE MEAINGS IS MEANT:
In the Quran, the word "tawaffa" USUALLY means "to die". However, it does not mean "to die" except in the presence of a contextual indicator that shows that this meaning is intended. It may be used to mean death or other things, but this is something understood from the context in which the word is being used.
In short, the term "tawaffa" in Arabic does not in itself mean death. Nor does it in itself mean sleep. Nor does it, in itself, mean a body+soul ascension. It does not take any of these meanings except by way of the context in which it is used. This is the case for many Arabic words.
This is a crucial point to understand, and one which you must hold firm to. Ahmadies will insist that since the word "tawaffa" is used in the sense of death (nearly) everywhere else, it should, for the sake of consistency,also mean death in the verses relating to Jesus. The muslim reply is that the context in those other places dictated the meaning of death, whereas in these verses relating to Jesus the context rules out such a meaning. To labour the point, you can add that consitency is good if it means you always look at the context in which a word is used, but can also becomes a bad thing if it means you try to always translate a word in exactly the same way in total disregard of the context.