And mention, [O Muhammad], in the Book [the story of] Mary, when she withdrew from her family to a place toward the east. 16 And she took, in seclusion from them, a screen. Then We sent to her Our Angel, and he represented himself to her as a well-proportioned man. 17 Mary exclaimed: "I surely take refuge from you with the Most Compassionate Lord, if you are at all God-fearing." 18 If thou fearest God... He said, 'I am but a messenger come from thy Lord, to give thee a boy most pure. 19 She said: "How shall I have a son, seeing that no man has touched me, and I am not unchaste?" 20 He said: even so! Thy Lord saith: it is with Me easy, and it is in order that We may make him a sign unto mankind and a mercy from Us, and it is an affair decreed. 21 ۞ So she conceived him, and she retired with him to a remote place. 22 And the pangs of childbirth drove her unto the trunk of the palm-tree. She said: Oh, would that I had died ere this and had become a thing of naught, forgotten! 23 Then (a voice) called to her from below: "Grieve not; your Lord has made a rivulet gush forth right below you. 24 If you shake the trunk of the palm tree, it will provide you with fresh ripe dates. 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 Then she brought the child to her people. They exclaimed: "O Mary, you have done a most astonishing thing! 27 O sister of Harun: thy father was not a man of evil, nor was thy mother a harlot. 28 Thereupon Mary pointed to the child. They exclaimed: "How can we speak to one who is in the cradle, a mere child?" 29 He spake: Lo! I am the slave of Allah. He hath given me the Scripture and hath appointed me a Prophet, 30 "And He has made me blessed wheresoever I be, and has enjoined on me Salat (prayer), and Zakat, as long as I live." 31 And (hath made me) dutiful toward her who bore me, and hath not made me arrogant, unblest. 32 Peace be upon me, the day I was born, and the day I die, and the day I am raised up alive!' 33 SUCH WAS, in the words of truth, Jesus the son of Mary, about whose nature they so deeply disagree. 34 Allah is not one to take to Himself a son. Hallowed be He! whensoever He decreeth an affair he only Saith to it: be, and it becometh. 35 And surely Allah is my Lord and your Lord, therefore serve Him; this is the right path. 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 clearly will they (polytheists and disbelievers in the Oneness of Allah) see and hear, the Day when they will appear before Us! But the Zalimun (polytheists and wrong-doers) today are in plain error. 38 And warn them of the day of intense regret, when the matter shall have been decided; and they are (now) in negligence and they do not believe. 39 It is We who will inherit the earth and all who dwell upon it: they shall all return to Us. 40