AND CALL to mind, through this divine writ, Mary. Lo! She withdrew from her family to an eastern place 16 And took cover from them, We sent a spirit of Ours to her who appeared before her in the concrete form of a man. 17 (And when she saw him) she said: 'I take refuge in the Merciful from you! If you are fearful' 18 'I am the Messenger of your Lord' he replied, 'and have come to give you a 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, "Thus [it will be]; your Lord says, 'It is easy for Me, and We will make him a sign to the people and a mercy from Us. And it is a matter [already] decreed.' " 21 ۞ Thereupon she carried him, and retired to a far off place. 22 Then the birth-pangs drave her to the trunk of a palm-tree; she said: would that I had died afore this and become forgotten, lost in oblivion! 23 He called from below to her: 'Do not sorrow, look, your Lord has provided a rivulet below 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 refresh the eye. Then if you see any mortal, say: Surely I have vowed a fast to the Beneficent Allah, so I shall not speak to any man today. 26 She took him to her people and they said, "Mary, this is indeed an strange thing. 27 Sister of Aaron, your father was not an evil man, nor was your mother an unchaste woman!" 28 Thereupon she pointed to him. They exclaimed: "How can we talk to one who [as yet] is a little boy in the cradle?" 29 "He ['Iesa (Jesus)] said: Verily! I am a slave of Allah, He has given me the Scripture and made me a Prophet;" 30 And blessed me wherever I may be, and enjoined on me worship and zakat for as long as I live, 31 And dutiful to my mother, and He has not made me insolent, unblessed; 32 Blessed was I on the day I was born, and blessed I shall be on the day I die and on the day I am raised to life again." 33 This is Jesus, the son of Mary; and this is the truth about him concerning which they are in doubt. 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 Surely God is my Lord, and your Lord; So serve you Him. This is a straight path. 36 Then groups among them differed; so ruin is for the disbelievers from the witnessing of a Great Day. 37 See and hear them on the Day they come unto Us! yet the evil-doers are today in error manifest. 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 Behold, We alone shall remain after the earth and all who live on it have passed away, and [when] unto Us all will have been brought back. 40