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When a person is dying, if the spirit is absent, the body and heart stop functioning, and a heart cannot beat without the spirit. So how can a fetus’s heart beat before the spirit is breathed into its body, and how does it remain alive until that moment?
Death is the cessation of the self (nafs), not the spirit (rūḥ). The human self begins at conception, and once the body’s organs and limbs have formed, the four spirits become established in it. The complete stillness of a person marks the departure of the self—not a heart stopping in the absence of the spirit.
In reality, what is taken at death is the human self, not the spirit. At times, the spirit is referred to figuratively as the self. From one perspective, we may understand the self as a psychic spirit, distinct from «روح الشهوه و روح البدن و روح القوه و روح الایمان». Thus, when we speak of the spirit being taken, we mean that the human self is taken. From this perspective, the departure of any one of the four spirits does not constitute death unless the death of the self occurs. A person may experience the deaths of faith, desire, strength and the body many times before the death of the self. When the self departs, the four spirits lose their connection to the body. But the departure of the four spirits, or any one of them, does not sever the human self’s connection to the body or bring about death. The complete stillness of a person is a sign that the human self has departed.
In the case of the embryo, we must distinguish the human self from the spirits: the self becomes connected to it at the very moment the fertilised ovum forms. Thus, at the first moment of conception, the human self begins its life. As time passes, further dimensions unfold within the human being. When the limbs and organs are fully formed, the inner faculties are completed as well, and the four spirits settle in the body.