Tafsir of Al Imran 3:55-57

"When Allah said..." This is an adverbial phrase (ẓarf) modifying "the best of plotters" (khayr al-mākirīn) or modifying "Allah’s plotting" (makr Allāh).

"I will take you (mutawaffīka)..." Meaning: I will cause you to reach your appointed time (ajal). It means: I will protect you from being killed by the disbelievers, delay you until the time I have written for you, and cause you to die a natural death, not as one killed by their hands.

"And raise you to Me..." To My heaven and the dwelling place of My angels.

"And purify you from those who disbelieve..." From the evil of their proximity and the wickedness of their company.

It is also said: "Mutawaffīka" means "I will take you from the earth," derived from the phrase "I have taken (tawaffaytu) what is owed to me by so-and-so" when one has collected it in full.

It is also said: "I will cause you to die at your appointed time after your descent from heaven, and I am raising you now."

It is also said: "I will take your soul in sleep," based on His saying: "And those that do not die in their sleep" (Az-Zumar: 42). Meaning: I will raise you while you are asleep so that no fear touches you, and you will awaken while you are in heaven, safe and brought near.

"Above those who disbelieve until the Day of Resurrection..." They (the followers of Jesus) will be superior to them through evidence, and in most circumstances, through evidence and the sword. His followers are the Muslims, because they follow him in the essence of Islam, even if the laws (sharā'iʿ) differ, unlike those who denied him and lied about him among the Jews and Christians.

"Then I will judge between you..." The explanation of this judgment is His saying: "Then I will punish them, and I will pay them their rewards in full." (It is also recited as fayuwaffīhim with a yāʾ).