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 She said: Surely I fly for refuge from you to the Beneficent Allah, if you are one guarding (against evil). 18 He said, "I am only the messenger of your Lord to give you [news of] a pure boy." 19 She said, "How can I have a son when no man has touched me; and neither have I been unchaste?" 20 He said: even so! Thy Lord saith: it is with Me easy, and it is in order that We may make him a sign unto mankind and a mercy from Us, and it is an affair decreed. 21 ۞ So she conceived him, and she withdrew with him to a remote place. 22 And the pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a palm-tree: She cried (in her anguish): "Ah! would that I had died before this! would that I had been a thing forgotten and out of sight!" 23 But he called her from below her, "Do not grieve; your Lord has provided beneath you a stream. 24 and if you shake the trunk of this palm-tree, it will drop fresh ripe dates on you. 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 Carrying her child, she brought him to her people. They said, "O Mary, you have indeed done something terrible! 27 Sister of Aaron, your father was not an evil man, nor was your mother an unchaste woman!" 28 Thereupon Mary pointed to the child. They exclaimed: "How can we speak to one who is in the cradle, a mere child?" 29 "He ['Iesa (Jesus)] said: Verily! I am a slave of Allah, He has given me the Scripture and made me a Prophet;" 30 “And He has made me blessed wherever I be; and ordained upon me prayer and charity, 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 And peace is on me the day I was born and the day I will die and the day I am raised alive." 33 Such was Jesus, son of Mary: (this is) a statement of the truth concerning which they doubt. 34 Allah is not one to take to Himself a son. Hallowed be He! whensoever He decreeth an affair he only Saith to it: be, and it becometh. 35 (Jesus had said): "Indeed Allah is my Lord and your Lord, so serve Him alone. This is the Straight Way." 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 plainly will they see and hear, the Day that they will appear before Us! but the unjust today are in error manifest! 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 For We shall inherit the earth and all that are on it. To Us, they shall return. 40