And mention, [O Muhammad], in the Book [the story of] Mary, when she withdrew from her family to a place toward the east. 16 We sent to her Our Spirit (Gabriel) in the resemblance of a perfect human. 17 She said, 'I take refuge in the All-merciful from thee! 18 He said: I am only a messenger of your Lord: That I will give you a pure boy. 19 Mary said: "How can a boy be born to me when no man has even touched me, nor have I ever been unchaste?" 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, and she withdrew with him to a remote 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 But a voice called out to her from below, "Do not despair. Your Lord has provided a brook that runs at your feet, 24 Shake the trunk of the palm-tree towards yourself and fresh and ripe dates shall fall upon you. 25 So eat and drink thou, and cool thine eyes; and if thou beholdest the human beings anyone, say: verily I have vowed to the Compassionate a fast, so I shall not speak today to any human being. 26 And she came to her people with him, carrying him (with her). They said: O Marium! surely you have done a strange thing. 27 Sister of Aaron, your father was not an evil man, nor was your mother an unchaste woman!" 28 But she pointed to him. They said: How should we speak to one who was a child in the cradle? 29 "He ['Iesa (Jesus)] said: Verily! I am a slave of Allah, He has given me the Scripture and made me 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 And [made me] dutiful to my mother, and He has not made me a wretched tyrant. 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 That is Jesus, the son of Mary - the word of truth about which they are in dispute. 34 It beseems not Allah that He should take to Himself a son, glory to be Him; when He has decreed a matter He only says to it "Be," and it is. 35 And lo! Allah is my Lord and your Lord. So serve Him. That is the right path. 36 Yet the sectarians differed among themselves. Alas for the unbelievers when they see the Terrible 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 Warn thou them of the day of anguish, when the matter shall be determined, and they yet heedless and unbelieving. 39 For We shall inherit the earth and all that are on it. To Us, they shall return. 40