AND CALL to mind, through this divine writ, Mary. Lo! She withdrew from her family to an eastern place 16 And had chosen seclusion from them. Then We sent unto her Our Spirit and it assumed for her the likeness of a perfect man. 17 She said: I verily seek refuge with the Compassionate from thee if thou art God-fearing. 18 He said, "I am the Messengers of your Lord. I have come to give you a purified son". 19 She said: "How shall I have a son, seeing that no man has touched me, and I am not unchaste?" 20 [The angel] replied, "So shall it be; your Lord says, 'This is easy for Me; and We shall make him a sign to people and a blessing, from Us. This has been decreed.'" 21 ۞ She conceived the child and retreated with him to a distant and solitary 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 But he called her from below her, "Do not grieve; your Lord has provided beneath you a stream. 24 And shake toward you the trunk of the palm tree; it will drop upon you ripe, fresh dates. 25 "So eat and drink and be glad, and if you see any human being, say: 'Verily! I have vowed a fast unto the Most Beneficent (Allah) so I shall not speak to any human being this day. 26 She took him to her people and they said, "Mary, this is indeed an strange thing. 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 The child cried out: "Verily I am Allah's servant. He has granted me the Book and has made me a Prophet 30 He has blessed me no matter where I dwell, commanded me to worship Him and pay the religious tax for as long as I live. 31 "(He) hath made me kind to my mother, and not overbearing or miserable; 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, in the words of truth, Jesus the son of Mary, about whose nature they so deeply disagree. 34 It does not befit Allah to appoint someone as His son – Purity is to Him! When He ordains a matter, He just commands it, “Be” – and it thereupon happens. 35 And [thus it was that Jesus always said]: "Verily, God is my Sustainer as well as your Sustainer; so worship [none but] Him: this [alone] is a straight way." 36 But the sects differ among themselves: and woe to the unbelievers because of the (coming) Judgment of a Momentous Day! 37 How [clearly] they will hear and see the Day they come to Us, but the wrongdoers today are in clear error. 38 Warn thou them of the day of anguish, when the matter shall be determined, and they yet heedless and unbelieving. 39 Verily We! We shall inherit the earth and whatsoever is thereon: and unto Us they shall be returned. 40