Recount in the Book how Mary withdrew from her people to an eastern place 16 She placed a screen (to screen herself) from them; then We sent her our angel, and he appeared before her as a man in all respects. 17 Mary exclaimed: "I surely take refuge from you with the Most Compassionate Lord, if you are at all God-fearing." 18 He said: I am only a messenger of thy Lord, that I may bestow on thee a faultless son. 19 She said, "How can I have a son when no mortal has touched me nor am I an unchaste woman". 20 "Even so" he replied, "as such your Lord has said: 'Easy it is for Me. And We shall make him a sign to mankind and a mercy from Us. It is a matter decreed.'" 21 ۞ So she conceived him, and she went away with him to a far place. 22 And the pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a palm-tree: She cried (in her anguish): "Ah! would that I had died before this! would that I had been a thing forgotten and out of sight!" 23 But he called her from below her, "Do not grieve; your Lord has provided beneath you a stream. 24 If you shake the trunk of the palm tree, it will provide you with fresh ripe dates. 25 Eat, then, and drink, and let thine eye be gladdened! And if thou shouldst see any human being, convey this unto him: 'Behold, abstinence from speech have I vowed unto the Most Gracious; hence, I may not speak today to any mortal. 26 Then she brought the child to her people. They exclaimed: "O Mary, you have done a most astonishing thing! 27 O sister of Aaron, your father was not a man of evil, nor was your mother unchaste." 28 But she pointed to the babe. They said: "How can we talk to one who is a child in the cradle?" 29 [Jesus] said, "Indeed, I am the servant of Allah. He has given me the Scripture and made me a prophet. 30 “And He has made me blessed wherever I be; and ordained upon me prayer and charity, as long as I live.” 31 He has made me dutiful toward my mother, and He has not made me arrogant or wicked. 32 Peace be upon me, the day I was born, and the day I die, and the day I am raised up alive!' 33 This was Jesus, son of Mary: A true account they contend about. 34 It is not [befitting] for Allah to take a son; exalted is He! When He decrees an affair, 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 But the parties have fallen into variance among themselves, then woe to those who disbelieve for the scene of a Dreadful Day. 37 How well they will hear and see on the Day when they come before Us! The evildoers are today in clear error. 38 And warn thou them of the Day of Sighing when the affair shall have been decreed while yet they are in negligence and are not believing. 39 It is We Who will inherit the earth, and all beings thereon: to Us will they all be returned. 40