Say (Prophet Muhammad): 'If you love Allah, follow me and Allah will love you, and forgive your sins. Allah is Forgiving and Merciful' 31 Say: 'Obey God, and the Messenger.' But if they turn their backs, God loves not the unbelievers. 32 ۞ Lo! Allah preferred Adam and Noah and the Family of Abraham and the Family of 'Imran above (all His) creatures. 33 (for His messengership) - a people alike and the seed of one another. Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing. 34 Remember when Imran's wife prayed to her Lord saying, "I have made a vow to dedicate to Your service whatever is in my womb. Lord, accept it from me. You are All-hearing and All-knowing". 35 And when she had given birth to the child, she said: "O Lord, I have delivered but a girl." -- But God knew better what she had delivered: A boy could not be as that girl was. "I have named her Mary," (she said), "and I give her into Your keeping. Preserve her and her children from Satan the ostracized." 36 And thereupon her Sustainer accepted the girl-child with goodly acceptance, and caused her to grow up in goodly growth, and placed her in the care of Zachariah. Whenever Zachariah visited her in the sanctuary, he found her provided with food. He would ask: "O Mary, whence came this unto thee?" She would answer: "It is from God; behold, God grants sustenance unto whom He wills, beyond all reckoning." 37 Zachariah prayed to his Lord there, saying, "Lord, grant me, by Your Grace, virtuous offspring. You hear all prayers". 38 Thereupon, as he stood praying in the sanctuary, the angels called out unto him: "God sends thee the glad tiding of [the birth of] John, who shall confirm the truth of a word from God, and [shall be] outstanding among men, and utterly chaste, and a prophet from among the righteous." 39 He said: My Lord! when shall there be a son (born) to me, and old age has already come upon me, and my wife is barren? He said: even thus does Allah what He pleases. 40 'Lord,' said Zachariah, 'appoint to me a sign.' 'Thy sign,' God said, 'is that thou shalt not speak, save by tokens, to men for three days. And mention thy Lord oft, and give glory at evening and dawn.' 41