AND CALL to mind, through this divine writ, Mary. Lo! She withdrew from her family to an eastern place 16 We sent to her Our Spirit (Gabriel) in the resemblance of a perfect human. 17 She said: Lo! I seek refuge in the Beneficent One from thee, if thou art Allah-fearing. 18 He said: I am only a messenger of thy Lord, that I may bestow on thee a faultless son. 19 She said: in what wise shall there be a boy unto me, whereas not a human being hath touched me, nor have I been a harlot? 20 He said: "So (it will be), your Lord said: 'That is easy for Me (Allah): And (We wish) to appoint him as a sign to mankind and a mercy from Us (Allah), and it is a matter (already) decreed, (by Allah). 21 ۞ She conceived the child and retreated with him to a distant and solitary place. 22 When she started to experience (the pain of) of childbirth labor, by the trunk of a palm tree in sadness she said, "Would that I had died long before and passed into oblivion." 23 Then (a voice) called to her from below: "Grieve not; your Lord has made a rivulet gush forth right below you. 24 And shake the trunk of the palm-tree toward thee, thou wilt cause ripe dates to fall upon thee. 25 So eat and drink thou, and cool thine eyes; and if thou beholdest the human beings anyone, say: verily I have vowed to the Compassionate a fast, so I shall not speak today to any human being. 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 But she pointed to the babe. They said: "How can we talk to one who is a child in the cradle?" 29 [But] he said: "Behold, I am a servant of God. He has vouchsafed unto me revelation and made me a prophet, 30 "And He has made me blessed wheresoever I be, and has enjoined on me Salat (prayer), and Zakat, as 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 That is Jesus, son of Mary, in word of truth, concerning which they are doubting. 34 It does not behove God to have a son. Too immaculate is He! When He decrees a thing He has only to say: "Be", and it is. 35 ['Iesa (Jesus) said]: "And verily Allah is my Lord and your Lord. So worship Him (Alone). That is the Straight Path. (Allah's Religion of Islamic Monotheism which He did ordain for all of His Prophets)." [Tafsir At-Tabari] 36 Then the sects differed [i.e. the Christians about 'Iesa (Jesus)], so woe unto the disbelievers [those who gave false witness by saying that 'Iesa (Jesus) is the son of Allah] from the meeting of a great Day (i.e. the Day of Resurrection, when they will be thrown in the blazing Fire). 37 How [clearly] they will hear and see the Day they come to Us, but the wrongdoers today are in clear error. 38 And warn them, [O Muhammad], of the Day of Regret, when the matter will be concluded; and [yet], they are in [a state of] heedlessness, and they do not believe. 39 We are the heirs of the earth and those living in it will all return to Us. 40