(Muhammad), tell them, "If you love God, follow me. God will love you and forgive your sins. God is All-forgiving and All-merciful." 31 Say: Obey Allah and the Apostle; but if they turn back, then surely Allah does not love the unbelievers. 32 ۞ Allah chose Adam and Noah, the House of Abraham and the House of Imran above all worlds. 33 (for His messengership) - a people alike and the seed of one another. Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing. 34 [Mention, O Muhammad], when the wife of 'Imran said, "My Lord, indeed I have pledged to You what is in my womb, consecrated [for Your service], so accept this from me. Indeed, You are the Hearing, the Knowing." 35 But when she had given birth to the child, she said: "O my Sustainer! Behold, I have given birth to a female" - the while God had been fully aware of what she would give birth to, and [fully aware] that no male child [she might have hoped for] could ever have been like this female - "and I have named her Mary. And verily, I seek Thy protection for her and her offspring against Satan, the accursed." 36 Her Lord received the child with gracious favour, and by His goodness she grew up comely, Zachariah taking charge of her. Whenever Zachariah went in to her in the Sanctuary, he found her provisioned. 'Mary,' he said, 'how comes this to thee?' 'From God,' she said. Truly God provisions whomsoever He will without reckoning. 37 Thereupon Zachariah prayed to his Lord, saying, "Lord, grant me by Your own grace virtuous offspring. You are the hearer of all prayers." 38 While he was standing in prayer in the chamber, the angels called unto him: "Allah doth give thee glad tidings of Yahya, witnessing the truth of a Word from Allah, and (be besides) noble, chaste, and a prophet,- of the (goodly) company of the righteous." 39 He said, "How can there be a son for me when I am already senile and my wife is barren." The angel replied, "God does as He wills." 40 [Zachariah] prayed: "O my Sustainer! Appoint a sign for me!" Said [the angel]: "Thy sign shall be that for three days thou wilt not speak unto men other than by gestures. And remember thy Sustainer unceasingly, and extol His limitless glory by night and by day." 41