Recount in the Book how Mary withdrew from her people to an eastern place 16 Then she took beside them a curtain; then We sent unto her Our Spirit, and he took unto her the form of a human being sound. 17 "I seek refuge in the Merciful from you, if you fear Him," she said. 18 He said: "Nay, I am only a messenger from thy Lord, (to announce) to thee the gift of a holy son. 19 She said: How can I have a son when no mortal hath touched me, neither have I been unchaste? 20 He said, 'Even so thy Lord has said: "Easy is that for Me; and that We may appoint him a sign unto men and a mercy from Us; it is a thing decreed."' 21 ۞ So she conceived him and withdrew with him to a distant place. 22 And [when] the throes of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a palm-tree, she exclaimed: "Oh, would that I had died ere this, and had become a thing forgotten, utterly forgotten!" 23 Thereupon the angel below her cried out: "Grieve not, for your Lord has caused a stream of water to flow beneath you. 24 And shake toward you the trunk of the palm tree; it will drop upon you ripe, fresh dates. 25 So eat and drink and cool your eyes; and if you see any person say to him: 'Verily I have vowed a fast to the Most Compassionate Lord, and so I shall not speak to anyone today.' " 26 Then she brought the child to her folk carrying him; and they said, 'Mary, thou hast surely committed a monstrous thing! 27 "O sister (i.e. the like) of Harun (Aaron) [not the brother of Musa (Moses), but he was another pious man at the time of Maryam (Mary)]! Your father was not a man who used to commit adultery, nor your mother was an unchaste woman." 28 Thereupon she pointed towards the child; they said, “How can we speak to an infant who is in the cradle?” 29 The child proclaimed, “I am Allah’s bondman; He has given me the Book and made me a Herald of the Hidden (a Prophet).” 30 And He hath made me blest wheresoever I may be, and enjoined on me the prayer and the poor-rate as long as I am alive. 31 And duteous unto my mother, and hath not made me high-handed, unblest. 32 There was peace on me the day I was born, and will be the day I die, and on the day I will be raised from the dead." 33 This was Jesus, son of Mary: A true account they contend about. 34 It does not befit Allah to take for Himself a son. Glory be to Him! When He decrees a thing He only says: "Be" and it is. 35 And surely Allah is my Lord and your Lord, therefore serve Him; this is the right path. 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 (Muhammad), how clearly they will hear and see on the day when they will be brought into Our presence. Today the wrong doers are in manifest error. 38 And warn them of the Day of anguish when the case hath been decided. Now they are in a state of carelessness, and they believe not. 39 We are the heirs of the earth and those living in it will all return to Us. 40