Recount in the Book how Mary withdrew from her people to an eastern place 16 and she took a veil apart from them; then We sent unto her Our Spirit that presented himself to her a man without fault. 17 She said: Surely I fly for refuge from you to the Beneficent Allah, if you are one guarding (against evil). 18 "I am only the messenger of your Lord," he replied. "I shall bestow upon you the gift of a son endowed with purity." 19 "How can I have a son," she said, "when no man has touched me, nor am I sinful?" 20 He said: "So (it will be): Thy Lord saith, 'that is easy for Me: and (We wish) to appoint him as a Sign unto men and a Mercy from Us': It is a matter (so) decreed." 21 ۞ She conceived the child and retreated with him to a distant and solitary place. 22 And the throes (of childbirth) compelled her to betake herself to the trunk of a palm tree. She said: Oh, would that I had died before this, and had been a thing quite forgotten! 23 Thereupon the angel below her cried out: "Grieve not, for your Lord has caused a stream of water to flow beneath you. 24 "And shake towards thyself the trunk of the palm-tree: It will let fall fresh ripe dates upon thee. 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 brought him to her people, carrying him. They said, "O Mary, you have certainly done a thing unprecedented. 27 O sister of Aaron! Your father was not an evil 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 "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 made me not arrogant, unblest. 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 Such (was) Jesus the son of Mary: (it is) a statement of truth, about which they (vainly) dispute. 34 It is not for God to take a son unto Him. Glory be to Him! When He decrees a thing, He but says to it '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 But different parties began to dispute with one another. A dreadful woe awaits on that great Day for those that reject the Truth. 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 It is We who will inherit the earth and all who dwell upon it: they shall all return to Us. 40