And mention in the Book Mary when she withdrew from her people to an eastern place, 16 and drew a curtain, screening herself from people whereupon We sent to her Our spirit and he appeared to her as a well-shaped man. 17 She said, "Indeed, I seek refuge in the Most Merciful from you, [so leave me], if you should be fearing of Allah." 18 He said, "I am only the messenger of your Lord to give you [news of] a pure boy." 19 She said, "How can I have a boy while no man has touched me and I have not been unchaste?" 20 He said: "Thus will it be. Your Lord said: 'It is easy for Me,' and that: 'We shall make him a sign for men and a blessing from Us.' This is a thing already decreed." 21 ۞ She conceived the child and retreated with him to a distant and solitary place. 22 The birth pangs led her to the trunk of a date-palm tree. "Would that I had died before this," she said, "and become a thing forgotten, unremembered." 23 Thereupon [a voice] called out to her from beneath that [palm-tree]: "Grieve not! Thy Sustainer has provided a rivulet [running] beneath thee; 24 and shake the trunk of this palmtree it will drop fresh ripe dates upon you. 25 So eat and drink and be consoled. And if thou meetest any mortal, say: Lo! I have vowed a fast unto the Beneficent, and may not speak this day to any mortal. 26 Then she brought him (the baby) to her people, carrying him. They said: "O Mary! Indeed you have brought a thing Fariya (an unheard mighty thing). 27 O sister of Harun: thy father was not a man of evil, nor was thy mother a harlot. 28 So she pointed to him. They said, "How can we speak to one who is in the cradle a child?" 29 He said: "I am indeed a servant of Allah: He hath given me revelation and made 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 dutiful to my mother, and He has not made me insolent, unblessed; 32 And peace is on me the day I was born and the day I will die and the day I am raised alive." 33 This was Jesus, son of Mary: A true account they contend about. 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 Then the sects differed [i.e. the Christians about 'Iesa (Jesus)], so woe unto the disbelievers [those who gave false witness by saying that 'Iesa (Jesus) is the son of Allah] from the meeting of a great Day (i.e. the Day of Resurrection, when they will be thrown in the blazing Fire). 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 Warn them of that day of pining when all matters will have been settled, though they would still be unaware and unbelieving (of the truth). 39 Indeed We shall inherit the earth and all that is on it, and only towards Us will they return. 40