AND CALL to mind, through this divine writ, Mary. Lo! She withdrew from her family to an eastern place 16 We sent to her Our Spirit (Gabriel) in the resemblance of a perfect human. 17 She said: Surely I fly for refuge from you to the Beneficent Allah, if you are one guarding (against evil). 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 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 ۞ So she conceived him, and she retired with him to a remote place. 22 The pains of labour drove her to the trunk of a date-palm. She said, "Oh, if only I had died before this and passed into oblivion!" 23 Then one cried unto her from underneath her, that grieve not, thy Lord hath placed underneath thou a rivulet. 24 And shake the trunk of the palm-tree toward thee, thou wilt cause ripe dates to fall upon thee. 25 "So eat and drink and cool (thine) eye. And if thou dost see any man, say, 'I have vowed a fast to (Allah) Most Gracious, and this day will I enter into not talk with any human being'" 26 Carrying her child, she brought him to her people. They said, "O Mary, you have indeed done something terrible! 27 O sister of Haroun! your father was not a bad man, nor, was your mother an unchaste woman. 28 So she pointed to him (Prophet Jesus). But they replied: 'How can we speak with a baby in the cradle' 29 [But] he said: "Behold, I am a servant of God. He has vouchsafed unto me revelation and made me a prophet, 30 He has made me blessed wherever I may be, and has enjoined upon me prayer and almsgiving throughout my life. 31 And (hath made me) dutiful toward her who bore me, and hath not made me arrogant, unblest. 32 Blessed was I on the day I was born, and blessed I shall be on the day I die and on the day I am raised to life again." 33 Such was the true story of Jesus, the son of Mary, about which they dispute bitterly. 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 (Jesus only said:) "Surely God is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him. This is the straight path." 36 Yet the sectarians differed among themselves. Alas for the unbelievers when they see the Terrible 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 And warn thou them of the Day of Sighing when the affair shall have been decreed while yet they are in negligence and are not believing. 39 Surely We inherit the earth and all those who are on it, and to Us they shall be returned. 40