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 She said, 'How shall I have a son whom no mortal has touched, neither have I 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 ۞ And she conceived him, and she withdrew with him to a far 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 Thereupon the angel below her cried out: "Grieve not, for your Lord has caused a stream of water to flow beneath you. 24 If you shake the trunk of the palm tree, it will provide you with fresh ripe dates. 25 So eat and drink and be consoled. And if thou meetest any mortal, say: Lo! I have vowed a fast unto the Beneficent, and may not speak this day to any mortal. 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! Thy father was not a wicked man, nor was thy mother a loose woman!" 28 Then she pointed to him. They said: How can we talk to one who is in the cradle, a young boy? 29 He said, "I am the servant of God. He has given me the Book and has appointed me to be a Prophet. 30 He has made me blessed wherever I may be, and has enjoined upon me prayer and almsgiving throughout my life. 31 "And dutiful to my mother, and made me not arrogant, unblest. 32 Peace on me the day I was born, and the day I die, and the day I shall be raised alive! 33 This is Jesus, the son of Mary; and this is the truth about him concerning which they are in doubt. 34 It is not conceivable that God should have taken unto Himself a son: limitless is He in His glory! When He wills a thing to be, He but says unto it "Be" - and it is! 35 Surely God is my Lord, and your Lord; So serve you Him. This is a straight path. 36 But the parties have fallen into variance among themselves, then woe to those who disbelieve for the scene of a Dreadful Day. 37 How well they will hear and see on the Day when they come before Us! The evildoers are today in clear error. 38 Warn them of that Day of Anguish, when the matter is determined whilst heedlessly they disbelieve. 39 We are the heirs of the earth and those living in it will all return to Us. 40