And mention thou in the Book Maryam, what time she retired from her people to a place eastward. 16 and drew a curtain, screening herself from people whereupon We sent to her Our spirit and he appeared to her as a well-shaped man. 17 She exclaimed: "Verily, 'I seek refuge from thee with the Most Gracious! [Approach me not] if thou art conscious of Him!" 18 If thou fearest God... He said, 'I am but a messenger come from thy Lord, to give thee a boy most pure. 19 She said, "How can I have a son when no man has touched me; and neither have I been unchaste?" 20 He said: "So (it will be): Thy Lord saith, 'that is easy for Me: and (We wish) to appoint him as a Sign unto men and a Mercy from Us': It is a matter (so) decreed." 21 ۞ So she conceived him, and she withdrew with him to a remote place. 22 And the pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a palm-tree: She cried (in her anguish): "Ah! would that I had died before this! would that I had been a thing forgotten and out of sight!" 23 Then [the babe 'Iesa (Jesus) or Jibrael (Gabriel)] cried unto her from below her, saying: "Grieve not! Your Lord has provided a water stream under you; 24 And shake toward thee the trunk of the palm-tree it shall drop on thee dates fresh and ripe. 25 Eat therefore, and drink, and be comforted; and if thou shouldst see any mortal, say, "I have vowed to the All-merciful a fast, and today I will not speak to any man. 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, thy father was not a wicked man, nor was thy mother a woman unchaste.' 28 She pointed to the child. They said, "How shall we talk to someone who is a child in the cradle?" 29 He said, "I am the servant of God. He has given me the Book and has appointed me to be a Prophet. 30 And He hath made me blest wheresoever I may be, and enjoined on me the prayer and the poor-rate as long as I am alive. 31 He has commanded me to be good to my parents and has not made me an arrogant rebellious person. 32 And peace on me on the day I was born, and on the day I die, and on the day I am raised to life. 33 That is Jesus, son of Mary, in word of truth, concerning which they are doubting. 34 Allah is not one to take to Himself a son. Hallowed be He! whensoever He decreeth an affair he only Saith to it: be, and it becometh. 35 ['Iesa (Jesus) said]: "And verily Allah is my Lord and your Lord. So worship Him (Alone). That is the Straight Path. (Allah's Religion of Islamic Monotheism which He did ordain for all of His Prophets)." [Tafsir At-Tabari] 36 But the sects differ among themselves: and woe to the unbelievers because of the (coming) Judgment of a Momentous Day! 37 How well they will hear and see on the day they come to Us! But the evildoers even today are in error manifest. 38 Warn them of that day of pining when all matters will have been settled, though they would still be unaware and unbelieving (of the truth). 39 Verily! We will inherit the earth and whatsoever is thereon. And to Us they all shall be returned, 40