AND CALL to mind, through this divine writ, Mary. Lo! She withdrew from her family to an eastern place 16 and drew a curtain, screening herself from people whereupon We sent to her Our spirit and he appeared to her as a well-shaped man. 17 She said, "Indeed, I seek refuge in the Most Merciful from you, [so leave me], if you should be fearing of Allah." 18 He said: "Nay, I am only a messenger from thy Lord, (to announce) to thee the gift of a holy son. 19 "How can I have a son," she said, "when no man has touched me, nor am I sinful?" 20 "Even so" he replied, "as such your Lord has said: 'Easy it is for Me. And We shall make him a sign to mankind and a mercy from Us. It is a matter decreed.'" 21 ۞ She conceived the child and retreated with him to a distant and solitary place. 22 Then the birth pangs drove her to the trunk of a palm-tree and she said: "Oh, would that I had died before this and had been all forgotten." 23 (The angel) Therefore called her from below her, “Do not grieve – your Lord has made a river flow below you.” 24 Shake also to thee the palm-trunk, and there shall come tumbling upon thee dates fresh and ripe. 25 Eat and drink, and be at peace. If you see any man, tell him: 'I have verily vowed a fast to Ar-Rahman and cannot speak to any one this day.' 26 Then she brought the child to her people. They exclaimed: "O Mary, you have done a most astonishing thing! 27 "O sister of Aaron! Thy father was not a man of evil, nor thy mother a woman unchaste!" 28 But she pointed to him. They said: How should we speak to one who was a child in the cradle? 29 He spake: Lo! I am the slave of Allah. He hath given me the Scripture and hath appointed me a Prophet, 30 and has blessed me wherever I might be and has enjoined upon me Prayer and Zakah (purifying alms) as long as I live; 31 And be dutiful to my mother. He has not made me haughty or rebellious. 32 Peace be upon me, the day I was born, and the day I die, and the day I am raised up alive!' 33 Such was (Prophet) Jesus, the son of Mary. A saying of truth, concerning what they doubt. 34 It is not [befitting] for Allah to take a son; exalted is He! When He decrees an affair, He only says to it, "Be," and it is. 35 God is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him alone. That is the right path. 36 Then groups among them differed; so ruin is for the disbelievers from the witnessing of a Great Day. 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 But warn them of the Day of Distress, when the matter will be determined: for (behold,) they are negligent 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