AND CALL to mind, through this divine writ, Mary. Lo! She withdrew from her family 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 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 She said: "How shall I have a son, seeing that no man has touched me, and I am not unchaste?" 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 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 one cried unto her from underneath her, that grieve not, thy Lord hath placed underneath thou a rivulet. 24 Shake the trunk of the date-palm tree, and it will drop ripe dates for you. 25 Eat, drink, and rejoice. Should you see a person going by, tell him that on this day you have promised the Beneficent God to fast and never talk to any human being." 26 And she came to her people with him, carrying him (with her). They said: O Marium! surely you have done a strange thing. 27 Sister of Aaron, your father was not an evil man, nor was your mother an unchaste woman!" 28 Then she pointed to him. They said: "How can we talk to one who is a child in the cradle?" 29 He said: "I am indeed a servant of Allah: He hath given me revelation and made me a prophet; 30 Blessed He has made me, wherever I may be; and He has enjoined me to pray, and to give the alms, so long as I live, 31 And (hath made me) dutiful toward her who bore me, and hath not made me arrogant, unblest. 32 Peace be upon me on the day I was born, and on the day I die; and on the day when I shall be raised up alive' 33 This was Jesus, son of Mary: A true account they contend about. 34 It befits not (the Majesty of) Allah that He should beget a son [this refers to the slander of Christians against Allah, by saying that 'Iesa (Jesus) is the son of Allah]. Glorified (and Exalted be He above all that they associate with Him). When He decrees a thing, He only says to it, "Be!" and it is. 35 Surely God is my Lord, and your Lord; So serve you Him. This is a straight path. 36 Yet the sectarians differed among themselves. Alas for the unbelievers when they see the Terrible Day! 37 Much will they listen and much will they see, on the Day when they come to Us, but today the unjust are in open error. 38 And warn them, [O Muhammad], of the Day of Regret, when the matter will be concluded; and [yet], they are in [a state of] heedlessness, and they do not believe. 39 Verily We! We shall inherit the earth and whatsoever is thereon: and unto Us they shall be returned. 40