وَتَوَكَّلْ عَلَى ٱلْحَىِّ ٱلَّذِى لَا يَمُوتُ … ٱلرَّحْمَٰنُ فَٱسْـَٔلْ بِهِۦ خَبِيرًا · وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمُ ٱسْجُدُوا۟ لِلرَّحْمَٰنِ قَالُوا۟ وَمَا ٱلرَّحْمَٰنُ
"Put your trust in the Living who does not die… He is al-Raḥmān; ask one who knows about Him. When they are told 'Prostrate yourselves to al-Raḥmān', they say, 'And what is al-Raḥmān?'"
ٱلْحَىِّ ٱلَّذِى لَا يَمُوتُ — the name al-Ḥayy was treated at al-Baqara 2/255 (al-Ḥayyu'l-Qayyūm). The addition here must be recorded: alladhī lā yamūt — the attribute is reinforced by a negation.
And the choice of this attribute as the ground of trust is worth recording: that what is trusted should be lasting. I give this as an observation: the measure of the place one leans on is given not as its strength but as its duration.
The objection in the sixtieth verse is worth recording: the opposing side asks not about the prostration but about the name.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the form of the question: wa ma'r-Raḥmān — "And what is al-Raḥmān?" The question is built with mā (what), not with man (who).
In this part of the sūra the name al-Raḥmān gathers thickly (59, 60, 63), and in the sixty-third verse the description of the servants of that name will begin. That is, the sūra takes the name that has been refused and answers by describing its servants. This is a structure that can be verified within the sūra.
وَزَادَهُمْ نُفُورًا — nufūr: to take fright and flee. The root was treated at Fāṭir 35/42, and it was recorded there: the warning does not remain without effect; it has its effect in the opposite direction. I rely on that treatment.