AND CALL to mind, through this divine writ, Mary. Lo! She withdrew from her family 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 She said: "Verily! I seek refuge with the Most Beneficent (Allah) from you, if you do fear Allah." 18 He said: I am only a messenger of thy Lord, that I may bestow on thee a faultless son. 19 "How can I have a son," she said, "when no man has touched me, nor am I sinful?" 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 ۞ So she conceived him, and she went away with him to a far place. 22 Then the birth pangs drove her to the trunk of a palm-tree and she said: "Oh, would that I had died before this and had been all forgotten." 23 Then (the child) called out to her from beneath her: Grieve not, surely your Lord has made a stream to flow beneath you; 24 and shake the trunk of this palmtree it will drop fresh ripe dates upon you. 25 "So eat and drink and cool (thine) eye. And if thou dost see any man, say, 'I have vowed a fast to (Allah) Most Gracious, and this day will I enter into not talk with any human being'" 26 Then she brought him to her people, carrying him. They said, "O Mary, you have certainly done a thing unprecedented. 27 O sister of Aaron! Thy father was not a wicked man, nor was thy mother a loose woman!" 28 Mary pointed to the child then; but they said, 'How shall we speak to one who is still in the cradle, a little child?' 29 [Jesus] said, "Indeed, I am the servant of Allah. He has given me the Scripture and made me a prophet. 30 And He has made me blessed wherever I may be, and He has enjoined on me prayer and poor-rate so long as I live; 31 And dutiful to my mother, and He has not made me insolent, unblessed; 32 And peace is on me the day I was born and the day I will die and the day I am 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 And surely Allah is my Lord and your Lord, therefore serve Him; this is the right path. 36 But the sects differ among themselves: and woe to the unbelievers because of the (coming) Judgment of a Momentous Day! 37 How well will they hear and see [the truth] on the Day when they come before Us! Today, however, these evildoers are obviously lost in error: 38 But warn them of the Day of Distress, when the matter will be determined: for (behold,) they are negligent and they do not believe! 39 Surely We inherit the earth and all those who are on it, and to Us they shall be returned. 40