Recount in the Book how Mary withdrew from her people to an eastern place 16 and kept herself in seclusion from them. We sent her Our angel, who presented himself to her as a full-grown human being. 17 She exclaimed: "Verily, 'I seek refuge from thee with the Most Gracious! [Approach me not] if thou art conscious of Him!" 18 He said: "Nay, I am only a messenger from thy Lord, (to announce) to thee the gift of a holy son. 19 Mary said: "How can a boy be born to me when no man has even touched me, nor have I ever been unchaste?" 20 He said, “So it is; your Lord has said, ‘This is easy for Me’; and in order that We make him a sign for mankind and a Mercy from Us; and this matter has been decreed.” 21 ۞ and in time she conceived him, and then she withdrew with him to a far-off place. 22 And the pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a date-palm. She said: "Would that I had died before this, and had been forgotten and out of sight!" 23 (The angel) Therefore called her from below her, “Do not grieve – your Lord has made a river flow below you.” 24 Shake the trunk of the palm-tree towards yourself and fresh and ripe dates shall fall upon you. 25 So eat and drink and be consoled. And if thou meetest any mortal, say: Lo! I have vowed a fast unto the Beneficent, and may not speak this day to any mortal. 26 Then she brought him to her own folk, carrying him. They said: O Mary! Thou hast come with an amazing thing. 27 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: Surely I am a servant of Allah; He has given me the Book and 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 and likewise to cherish my mother; He has not made me arrogant, unprosperous. 32 "And Salam (peace) be upon me the day I was born, and the day I die, and the day I shall be raised alive!" 33 Such was the true story of Jesus, the son of Mary, about which they dispute bitterly. 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 And lo! Allah is my Lord and your Lord. So serve Him. That is the right path. 36 The sects among them differ: but woe unto the disbelievers from the meeting of an awful Day. 37 Much will they listen and much will they see, on the Day when they come to Us, but today the unjust are in open error. 38 Warn them of [the coming of] the Day of Remorse, when everything will have been decided, while they are heedless and do not believe. 39 Indeed We shall inherit the earth and all that is on it, and only towards Us will they return. 40