124. but we won’t enter it, for we have visited unseemly places?
125. What good is it that the faces of those who practiced abstinence will shine brighter than stars when our faces are blacker than darkness?
126. While we were alive and doing evil, we didn’t think about what we would suffer after death."
127. He answered: "These are the rules for the contest in which everyone born on earth takes part:
128. Those who are defeated will suffer what you said, but those who conquer will receive what I say.
129. This is the path that Moses declared when he was alive, speaking to the people, Choose life for yourself… so that you may live.
130. But they didn’t believe him or the prophets who came after him. They didn’t even believe me when I spoke to them.
131. There won’t be sadness over their destruction, as there will be joy over those for whom salvation is sure."
132. I answered: "I know, Lord, that the Most High is now called merciful, since he has mercy on those who haven’t yet come into the world. He is called
133. gracious, since he has mercy on those who convert to his Law,
134. and patient, because he shows patience to those who have sinned, since they are his own creation.
135. I know that he is called generous, because he wants to give gifts rather than demand them,
136. and very merciful, because he multiplies mercies more and more to those now alive and those who went before and those who are to come in the future.
137. If, indeed, he hadn’t multiplied them, the world with those who live in it would not now exist.