(O Muhammad), recite in the Book the account of Mary, when she withdrew from her people to a place towards the east; 16 We sent to her Our Spirit (Gabriel) in the resemblance of a perfect human. 17 She said: "Verily! I seek refuge with the Most Beneficent (Allah) from you, if you do fear Allah." 18 If thou fearest God... He said, 'I am but a messenger come from thy Lord, to give thee a boy most pure. 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: "So (it will be), your Lord said: 'That is easy for Me (Allah): And (We wish) to appoint him as a sign to mankind and a mercy from Us (Allah), and it is a matter (already) decreed, (by Allah). 21 ۞ When she conceived him she went away to a distant 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 But he called her from below her, "Do not grieve; your Lord has provided beneath you a stream. 24 and shake the trunk of the palm-tree towards thee: it will drop fresh, ripe dates upon thee. 25 "So eat and drink and cool (thine) eye. And if thou dost see any man, say, 'I have vowed a fast to (Allah) Most Gracious, and this day will I enter into not talk with any human being'" 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! Thy father was not a man of evil, nor thy mother a woman unchaste!" 28 But she pointed towards him. "How can we talk to one," they said, "who is only an infant in the cradle?" 29 He said: "I am indeed a servant of Allah: He hath given me revelation and made me a prophet; 30 He has blessed me no matter where I dwell, commanded me to worship Him and pay the religious tax for as long as I live. 31 (He has made me) kind to my mother; He has not made me arrogant, unprosperous. 32 Peace on me the day I was born, and the day I die, and the day I shall be raised alive! 33 Such was Jesus, the son of Mary. That is the whole truth, about which they still dispute: 34 It is not for Allah to take a son! Exaltations to Him! When He decrees a thing He only says: 'Be' and it is. 35 God is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him alone. That is the right path. 36 Then the sects have differed among themselves; so woe to those who disbelieve in the witness of a Day Mighty! 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 them of that Day of Anguish, when the matter is determined whilst heedlessly they disbelieve. 39 Verily We! We shall inherit the earth and whatsoever is thereon: and unto Us they shall be returned. 40