Recount in the Book how Mary withdrew from her people to an eastern place 16 and kept herself in seclusion from them, whereupon We sent unto her Our angel of revelation, who appeared to her in the shape of a well-made human being. 17 She said: Lo! I seek refuge in the Beneficent One from thee, if thou art Allah-fearing. 18 He said: "I am just a message-bearer of your Lord, I have come to grant you a most pure boy." 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: 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 withdrew with him to a distant place. 22 Then the birth pangs drove her to the trunk of a palm-tree and she said: "Oh, would that I had died before this and had been all forgotten." 23 Then one cried unto her from underneath her, that grieve not, thy Lord hath placed underneath thou a rivulet. 24 If you shake the trunk of the palm tree, it will provide you with fresh ripe dates. 25 Therefore eat and drink and rejoice with your eyes. If you meet any human say to him: "I have vowed a fast to the Merciful and will not speak with anyone today.' 26 Then she came to her people, carrying her baby. They said: "O Mary! You have committed a monstrous thing. 27 O sister of Aaron! Your father was not an evil man, nor was your mother an unchaste woman." 28 So she pointed to him. They said, "How can 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 and likewise to cherish my mother; He has not made me arrogant, unprosperous. 32 Peace be upon me, the day I was born, and the day I die, and the day I am raised up alive!' 33 Such (was) Jesus the son of Mary: (it is) a statement of truth, about which they (vainly) dispute. 34 It does not behove God to have a son. Too immaculate is He! When He decrees a thing He has only to say: "Be", and it is. 35 (Jesus only said:) "Surely God is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him. This is the straight path." 36 Yet different groups differed among themselves. How awful it will be for those who have rejected the truth when a dreadful Day arrives! 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 hence, warn them of [the coming of] the Day of Regrets, when everything will have been decided - for as yet they are heedless, and they do not believe [in it]. 39 Verily! We will inherit the earth and whatsoever is thereon. And to Us they all shall be returned, 40