(Muhammad), mention in the Book (the Quran) the story of Mary how she left her family and started living in a solitary place to the East 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 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 boy while no man has touched me and I have not been unchaste?" 20 [The angel] answered: "Thus it is; [but] thy Sustainer says, 'This is easy for Me; and [thou shalt have a son,] so that We might make him a symbol unto mankind and an act of grace from US. And it was a thing decreed [by God]: 21 ۞ Then she conceived him and withdrew with him to a far-off place. 22 And the pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a date-palm. She said: "Would that I had died before this, and had been forgotten and out of sight!" 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 Shake also to thee the palm-trunk, and there shall come tumbling upon 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 Then she came to her people, carrying her baby. They said: "O Mary! You have committed a monstrous thing. 27 O sister of Haroun! your father was not a bad man, nor, was your mother an unchaste woman. 28 She pointed to the child. They said, "How shall we talk to someone who is a child in the cradle?" 29 He said, 'Lo, I am God's servant; God has given me the Book, and made me a Prophet. 30 He has blessed me no matter where I dwell, commanded me to worship Him and pay the religious tax for as long as I live. 31 and [has endowed me with] piety towards my mother; and He has not made me haughty or bereft of grace. 32 Peace be upon me on the day I was born, and on the day I die; and on the day when I shall be raised up alive' 33 That is Jesus, the son of Mary - the word of truth about which they are in dispute. 34 It befits not (the Majesty of) Allah that He should beget a son [this refers to the slander of Christians against Allah, by saying that 'Iesa (Jesus) is the son of Allah]. Glorified (and Exalted be He above all that they associate with Him). When He decrees a thing, He only says to it, "Be!" and it is. 35 And surely Allah is my Lord and your Lord, therefore serve Him; this is the right path. 36 Yet different groups differed among themselves. How awful it will be for those who have rejected the truth when a dreadful Day arrives! 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 And warn thou them of the Day of Sighing when the affair shall have been decreed while yet they are in negligence and are not believing. 39 Surely We inherit the earth and all those who are on it, and to Us they shall be returned. 40