الٓمٓ · ٱللَّهُ لَآ إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ ٱلْحَىُّ ٱلْقَيُّومُ
The note on the disconnected letters (al-ḥurūf al-muqaṭṭaʿa) was given in detail at 2/1 in al-Baqara: there is no certain knowledge; the views were tabulated there and no preference was imposed. I do not repeat it here.
And the construct al-Ḥayyu'l-Qayyūm was analysed at 2/255 in al-Baqara (the Verse of the Throne). In summary: ḥayy — living; qayyūm is an intensive form not from ك-و-م but from the root ق-و-م: the one who stands of Himself and holds up everything else.
| Sūra | Where the sentence stands | What comes before it |
|---|---|---|
| al-Baqara 2/255 | The middle of the sūra | After a long block of rulings and narrative |
| Āl ʿImrān 3/2 | The second verse of the sūra | Only the opening letters |
I record this as my own reading, and it is not binding: in al-Baqara this sentence is a stopping place inside a long narration; in Āl ʿImrān it is the ground. Everything the sūra will speak of across two hundred verses — book, family, war, defeat — it builds on top of this sentence. And the third verse, immediately after this name, will name the Book.