al-Mawt is interpreted in five ways:
1. By al-Mawt, what is meant is the uncreated drop of fluid (nutfa)—that is, a living being not yet given form; this is the case in the following verses:
While you were dead (that is, uncreated drops of fluid), He gave you life (that is, He created you and gave you spirits). (al-Baqara 2:28)
You made us die twice (when we were in the state of the first death, that is, as drops of fluid, You created us)... (al-Mu'min 40:11)
You bring the dead (that is, the nutfa) out of the living. (Āl ʿImrān 3:27)
This is also the case in the surahs Yūnus and al-Rūm.
2. By al-Mayyit, what is meant is the one who has deviated from tawhid (the oneness of God) / is in misguidance; as in the following verses:
Is one who was dead (that is, in misguidance, having deviated from hudā [guidance]) and We gave him life (that is, hudā)... (al-Anʿām 6:122)
The living (that is, the believers) and the dead (that is, the disbelievers who are as if dead) are not equal. (Fāṭir 35:22)
This is a parable that Allah, the Exalted, has set forth for the disbelievers and the believers.
Indeed, you cannot make the dead (that is, the disbelievers who, in regard to hearing iman [faith], are as if dead) hear. (al-Naml 27:80)
A similar example is found in the surah al-Anbiyāʾ.
3. By al-Mayyit, what is meant is the barrenness of the earth and the scarcity of vegetation; as in the following verse:
It is He who sends the winds as good tidings before His mercy. When they have carried heavy clouds, We drive them to a dead land (that is, a land dead due to lack of vegetation)... (al-Aʿrāf 7:57)
A similar example is found in the surahs Fāṭir and Yā-Sīn.
The expressions baldatan mayyitan [dead land] and al-arḍu'l-mayyita [dead earth] in the Qur'an mean "arid and barren land," and the phrase aḥyaynāhā [We revived it / gave it life] means "We revived it with vegetation."
4. By the word al-Mawt, what is meant is the taking of the soul/life as a punishment, even though one's worldly sustenance has not been exhausted; as in the following verses:
Then We revived you after your death (that is, O Children of Israel, because of what you demanded from Moses, as a punishment, We killed you, then revived you). (al-Baqara 2:56)
Those who left their homes in fear of death (hazara'l-mawt)—and they were thousands—Allah said to them, "Die!" (al-Baqara 2:243)
They died and remained dead for eight days. Thereafter, Allah revived them.
5. The word al-Mawt is also used in its literal sense: death itself, meaning the departure of souls/lives at the appointed time—which is the death after which there is no return to this world; as in the following verses:
Indeed, you are to die, and indeed, they are to die. (al-Zumar 39:30)
Every soul will taste death. (Āl ʿImrān 3:185)
Here, "death" refers to the death after which there is no return to this world until the Day of Resurrection.