AND CALL to mind, through this divine writ, Mary. Lo! She withdrew from her family to an eastern place 16 out of her people's sight. We sent Our Spirit to her, who stood before her in the shape of a well formed human being. 17 Mary exclaimed: "I surely take refuge from you with the Most Compassionate Lord, if you are at all God-fearing." 18 He said: "I am just a message-bearer of your Lord, I have come to grant you a most pure boy." 19 'How shall I bear a son' she answered, 'when I am not touched by a human and not unchaste' 20 [The angel] replied, "So shall it be; your Lord says, 'This is easy for Me; and We shall make him a sign to people and a blessing, from Us. This has been decreed.'" 21 ۞ So she conceived him, and she went away with him to a far place. 22 And the birthpangs surprised her by the trunk of the palm-tree. She said, 'Would I had died ere this, and become a thing forgotten!' 23 Then one cried unto her from underneath her, that grieve not, thy Lord hath placed underneath thou a rivulet. 24 Shake the trunk of the date-palm tree, and it will drop ripe dates for you. 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 Carrying her child, she brought him to her people. They said, "O Mary, you have indeed done something terrible! 27 O sister of Harun: thy father was not a man of evil, nor was thy mother a harlot. 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 said: "I am indeed a servant of Allah: He hath given me revelation and made me a prophet; 30 "And He hath made me blessed wheresoever I be, and hath enjoined on me Prayer and Charity as long as I live; 31 and likewise to cherish my mother; He has not made me arrogant, unprosperous. 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 the majesty of God that He should beget a son. Glory be to Him! He is far above that: when He decrees something, He says only, "Be!" and it is. 35 Verily Allah is my Lord and your Lord: Him therefore serve ye: this is a Way that is straight. 36 The sects among them differ: but woe unto the disbelievers from the meeting of an awful Day. 37 How clearly will they (polytheists and disbelievers in the Oneness of Allah) see and hear, the Day when they will appear before Us! But the Zalimun (polytheists and wrong-doers) today are in plain error. 38 And warn them of the Day of anguish when the case hath been decided. Now they are in a state of carelessness, and they believe not. 39 We are the heirs of the earth and those living in it will all return to Us. 40