Hayat (life and its beginning and end)

الحياة

Hayat (life) is the opposite of death, a temperament that brings sensation and motion; in God's case it is an attribute that suits Him. ¹ The article separates it from ruh, nafs, istihlal (crying out at birth, a sign of life) and death. ¹ The first human life began with the breath of the spirit into Adam; the jurists agree that the life that counts for the offspring begins when the spirit is breathed into the foetus, but they differ on the date. ² The majority hold that the foetus's life before ensoulment is legal, shown in inheritance and bequest; some hold life begins when the drop settles in the womb, and full legal life begins at a live birth. ^{2 3} Life ends with the departure of the spirit, and one sign of death is the fixed gaze. ³ Life is to be kept by what sustains it and by refraining from what destroys it; the guarding of souls ranks just below religion among the necessities, and the compelled may eat what is forbidden only as far as it saves him from death. ^{4 5} Self-injury is forbidden, and so is killing another without right; killing is wilful, quasi-wilful or by error, and the life harmed is lasting, settled or the dying throes. ^{5 6} Harm to a foetus: if the child is born dead there is a ghurra, if born alive and then dies there is a full blood-money with expiation. ^{7 8} For inheritance, life must be proved: the unborn inherits on two conditions; people who die together do not inherit from each other on the majority view; if one is known to have died first and the order is unclear, the estate is held in suspense. ^{8 9} Slaughter needs settled life; a foetus born crying out is treated as living for washing, prayer and inheritance, and the schools differ when it does not. ^{9 10} Repentance is accepted until the soul reaches the throat (gharghara). ^{10 11}