And mention, [O Muhammad], in the Book [the story of] Mary, when she withdrew from her family to a place toward the east. 16 out of her people's sight. We sent Our Spirit to her, who stood before her in the shape of a well formed human being. 17 Mary exclaimed: "I surely take refuge from you with the Most Compassionate Lord, if you are at all God-fearing." 18 "I am only the messenger of your Lord," he replied. "I shall bestow upon you the gift of a son endowed with purity." 19 "How can I have a son," she said, "when no man has touched me, nor am I sinful?" 20 He said, 'Even so thy Lord has said: "Easy is that for Me; and that We may appoint him a sign unto men and a mercy from Us; it is a thing decreed."' 21 ۞ So she conceived him; then withdrew herself with him to a remote place. 22 Then the birth pangs drove her to the trunk of a palm-tree and she said: "Oh, would that I had died before this and had been all forgotten." 23 Then (a voice) called to her from below: "Grieve not; your Lord has made a rivulet gush forth right below you. 24 Shake the trunk of the date-palm tree, and it will drop ripe dates for you. 25 So eat and drink and refresh the eye. Then if you see any mortal, say: Surely I have vowed a fast to the Beneficent Allah, so I shall not speak to any man today. 26 Then she brought the child to her people. They exclaimed: "O Mary, you have done a most astonishing thing! 27 O sister of Aaron, your father was never an evil man, nor was your mother unchaste' 28 But she pointed to him. They said: How should we speak to one who was a child in the cradle? 29 He said: "I am indeed a servant of Allah: He hath given me revelation and made me a prophet; 30 And He hath made me blest wheresoever I may be, and enjoined on me the prayer and the poor-rate as long as I am alive. 31 And (hath made me) dutiful toward her who bore me, and hath not made me arrogant, unblest. 32 Peace on me the day I was born, and the day I die, and the day I shall be raised alive! 33 SUCH WAS, in the words of truth, Jesus the son of Mary, about whose nature they so deeply disagree. 34 It does not befit Allah to take for Himself a son. Glory be to Him! When He decrees a thing He only says: "Be" and it is. 35 And lo! Allah is my Lord and your Lord. So serve Him. That is the right path. 36 But the sects differ among themselves: and woe to the unbelievers because of the (coming) Judgment of a Momentous Day! 37 How wondrous in their hearing and their sight will they be the Day they come unto Us! But today the wrong doers are in error manifest. 38 But warn them of the Day of Distress, when the matter will be determined: for (behold,) they are negligent and they do not believe! 39 Lo! We, only We, inherit the earth and all who are thereon, and unto Us they are returned. 40