Recount in the Book how Mary withdrew from her people to an eastern place 16 and kept herself in seclusion from them. We sent her Our angel, who presented himself to her as a full-grown human being. 17 She said: I verily seek refuge with the Compassionate from thee if thou art God-fearing. 18 He said, "I am only the messenger of your Lord to give you [news of] a pure boy." 19 She said, 'How shall I have a son whom no mortal has touched, neither have I been unchaste?' 20 He said: Even so; your Lord says: It is easy to Me: and that We may make him a sign to men and a mercy from Us, and it is a matter which has been decreed. 21 ۞ So she conceived him, and she went away with him to a far 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 But he called her from below her, "Do not grieve; your Lord has provided beneath you a stream. 24 And shake toward you the trunk of the palm tree; it will drop upon you ripe, fresh 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 him to her people, carrying him. They said, "O Mary, you have certainly done a thing unprecedented. 27 Sister of Aaron, thy father was not a wicked man, nor was thy mother a woman unchaste.' 28 Then she Pointed to him. They said: how shall we speak to one who is in the cradle, a child? 29 "I am a servant of God," he answered. "He has given me a Book and made me a prophet, 30 "And He hath made me blessed wheresoever I be, and hath enjoined on me Prayer and Charity as long as I live; 31 (He has made me) kind to my mother; He has not made me arrogant, unprosperous. 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 Such is Isa, son of Marium; (this is) the saying of truth about which they dispute. 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 Verily Allah is my Lord and your Lord: Him therefore serve ye: this is a Way that is straight. 36 The sects among them differ: but woe unto the disbelievers from the meeting of an awful Day. 37 How [clearly] they will hear and see the Day they come to Us, but the wrongdoers today are in clear error. 38 Warn them of the woeful day when the final decree will be issued; they are neglectful and faithless. 39 It is We who will inherit the earth and all who dwell upon it: they shall all return to Us. 40