AND CALL to mind, through this divine writ, Mary. Lo! She withdrew from her family to an eastern place 16 So she took a veil (to screen herself) from them; then We sent to her Our spirit, and there appeared to her a well-made man. 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: "How can I have a son, when no man has touched me, nor am I unchaste?" 20 The angel said: "Thus shall it be. Your Lord says: 'It is easy for Me; and We shall do so in order to make him a Sign for mankind and a mercy from Us. This has been decreed.' " 21 ۞ and in time she conceived him, and then she withdrew with him to a far-off place. 22 Then the birth-pangs drave her to the trunk of a palm-tree; she said: would that I had died afore this and become forgotten, lost in oblivion! 23 He called from below to her: 'Do not sorrow, look, your Lord has provided a rivulet below you, 24 And shake towards you the trunk of the palmtree, it will drop on you fresh ripe dates: 25 Eat, then, and drink, and let thine eye be gladdened! And if thou shouldst see any human being, convey this unto him: 'Behold, abstinence from speech have I vowed unto the Most Gracious; hence, I may not speak today to any mortal. 26 Then she brought him to her people, carrying him. They said, "O Mary, you have certainly done a thing unprecedented. 27 O sister of Haroun! your father was not a bad man, nor, was your mother an unchaste woman. 28 Then she Pointed to him. They said: how shall we speak to one who is in the cradle, a child? 29 "I am a servant of God," he answered. "He has given me a Book and made me a prophet, 30 And hath made me blessed wheresoever I may be, and hath enjoined upon me prayer and almsgiving so long as I remain alive, 31 (He has made me) kind to my mother; He has not made me arrogant, unprosperous. 32 Peace on me the day I was born, and the day I die, and the day I shall be raised alive! 33 This is Eisa (Jesus), the son of Maryam; a true statement, in which they doubt. 34 It does not befit Allah to take for Himself a son. Glory be to Him! When He decrees a thing He only says: "Be" and it is. 35 God is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him alone. That is the right path. 36 The sects among them differ: but woe unto the disbelievers from the meeting of an awful Day. 37 (Muhammad), how clearly they will hear and see on the day when they will be brought into Our presence. Today the wrong doers are in manifest error. 38 Warn them of that day of pining when all matters will have been settled, though they would still be unaware and unbelieving (of the truth). 39 Ultimately, We shall inherit the earth and whatever is on it; to Us shall they be returned. 40