Mary

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

Surah 19  Maryam

        Mary

Section 2

Relate in the Book the story of Mary, when she withdrew from her family to a place in the East.

She placed a screen, to screen herself, from them; then We sent to her our angel, and he appeared before her as a man in all respects.

She said: 'I seek refuge from thee to Allah Most Gracious: come not near if thou dost fear Allah.'

He said: 'Nay, I am only a messenger from thy Lord, to announce to thee the gift of a holy son.'

She said: 'How shall I have a son, seeing that no man has touched me, and I am not unchaste?'

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.'

So she conceived him, and she retired with him to a remote place.

And the pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a palm-tree: she cried in her anguish:  'Ah! Would that I had been a thing forgotten and out of sight!'

But a voice cried to her from beneath the palm-tree: 'Grieve not! For thy Lord hath provided a rivulet beneath thee;

'And shake towards thyself the trunk of the palm-tree: it will let fall fresh ripe dates upon thee.

'So eat and drink and cool thine eye.  And if thou dost see any human, say, " I have vowed a fast to Allah Most Gracious, and this day I will enter into no talk with any human being." '

At length she brought the babe to her people, carrying him in her arms.  They said: 'O Mary!  Truly a strange thing hast thou brought!

'O sister of Aaron!  Thy father was not a man of evil, nor thy mother a woman unchaste!'

But she pointed to the babe.  They said: 'How can we talk to one who is a child in the cradle?'

He said:  'I am indeed a servant of Allah: He hath given me revelation and made me a prophet;

'And He hath made me blessed wheresoever I be, and hath enjoined on me Prayer and Charity as long as I live;

'He hath made me kind to my mother, and not overbearing or miserable;

'So Peace is on me the day I was born, the day that I die, and the day that I shall be raised up to life again!'

Such was Jesus the son of Mary: it is a statement of truth, about which they vainly dispute.

It is not befitting to the majesty of Allah that He should beget a son.  Glory be to Him! When He determines a matter, He only says to it, 'Be', and it is.

Extract from The Holy Qur'an as translated by Abdullah Yusuf Ali - 1934.

I think this is the most accessible of the translations of the Koran that I have read.