AND CALL to mind, through this divine writ, Mary. Lo! She withdrew from her family to an eastern place 16 We sent to her Our Spirit (Gabriel) in the resemblance of a perfect human. 17 "I seek refuge in the Merciful from you, if you fear Him," she said. 18 He said: I am but a messenger from thy Lord that I may bestow on thee a boy pure. 19 She said, 'How shall I have a son whom no mortal has touched, neither have I been unchaste?' 20 [The angel] replied, "So shall it be; your Lord says, 'This is easy for Me; and We shall make him a sign to people and a blessing, from Us. This has been decreed.'" 21 ۞ She conceived the child and retreated with him to a distant and solitary place. 22 And [when] the throes of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a palm-tree, she exclaimed: "Oh, would that I had died ere this, and had become a thing forgotten, utterly forgotten!" 23 (The angel) Therefore called her from below her, “Do not grieve – your Lord has made a river flow below you.” 24 "And shake the trunk of date-palm towards you, it will let fall fresh ripe-dates upon you." 25 "So eat and drink and be glad, and if you see any human being, say: 'Verily! I have vowed a fast unto the Most Beneficent (Allah) so I shall not speak to any human being this day. 26 Then she brought him to her people, carrying him. They said, "O Mary, you have certainly done a thing unprecedented. 27 O sister of Aaron, your father was never an evil man, nor was your mother unchaste' 28 Thereupon she pointed towards the child; they said, “How can we speak to an infant who is in the cradle?” 29 He said, "I am the servant of God. He has given me the Book and has appointed me to be a Prophet. 30 He made me to be blessed wherever I am, and He has charged me with prayer and charity for as long as I shall live. 31 "(He) hath made me kind to my mother, and not overbearing or miserable; 32 And peace be on me the day I was born and the day I die and the day I shall be raised up alive. 33 Such (was) Jesus the son of Mary: (it is) a statement of truth, about which they (vainly) dispute. 34 God is too Exalted to have a son. When He decides to bring some thing into existence He needs only command it to exist and it comes into existence. 35 And [thus it was that Jesus always said]: "Verily, God is my Sustainer as well as your Sustainer; so worship [none but] Him: this [alone] is a straight way." 36 (The followers of Jesus) turned themselves into quarrelling sects. The disbelievers shall face a woeful condition on the great Day (of Judgment). 37 How well they will hear and see on the day they come to Us! But the evildoers even today are in error manifest. 38 Warn them of the woeful day when the final decree will be issued; they are neglectful and faithless. 39 Indeed We shall inherit the earth and all that is on it, and only towards Us will they return. 40