Recount in the Book how Mary withdrew from her people to an eastern place 16 So there she screened herself from them; We therefore sent Our Spirit towards her – he appeared before her in the form of a healthy man. (Angel Jibreel – peace be upon him.) 17 Mary said, "Would that the Beneficent God would protect me from you. Leave me alone if you are a God fearing person". 18 He said: I am only a messenger of your Lord: That I will give you a pure boy. 19 Said she: "How can I have a son when no man has ever touched me? - for, never have I been a loose woman!" 20 [The angel] answered: "Thus it is; [but] thy Sustainer says, 'This is easy for Me; and [thou shalt have a son,] so that We might make him a symbol unto mankind and an act of grace from US. And it was a thing decreed [by God]: 21 ۞ So she conceived him and withdrew with him 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 Then (a voice) called to her from below: "Grieve not; your Lord has made a rivulet gush forth right below you. 24 "And shake the trunk of date-palm towards you, it will let fall fresh ripe-dates upon you." 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 Carrying her child, she brought him to her people. They said, "O Mary, you have indeed done something terrible! 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 So she pointed to him. They said, "How can we speak to one who is in the cradle a child?" 29 [But] he said: "Behold, I am a servant of God. He has vouchsafed unto me revelation and made me a prophet, 30 He made me to be blessed wherever I am, and He has charged me with prayer and charity for as long as I shall live. 31 and has made me dutiful to my mother. He has not made me oppressive, nor bereft of God's blessings. 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 was the true story of Jesus, the son of Mary, about which they dispute bitterly. 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 God is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him alone. That is the right path. 36 Then groups among them differed; so ruin is for the disbelievers from the witnessing of a Great Day. 37 How plainly will they see and hear, the Day that they will appear before Us! but the unjust today are in error manifest! 38 Warn thou them of the day of anguish, when the matter shall be determined, and they yet heedless and unbelieving. 39 Surely We shall inherit the earth and all that are upon it, and unto Us they shall be returned. 40