Ismaili Ta'wil of al-Raja' — Hope and Anticipation: How the Quranic Concept of Raja' (Hopeful Anticipation of God's Mercy — 2:218 'Those Who Believe, Emigrate, and Strive — These May Hope for God's Mercy'; 39:53 'Say: O My Servants Who Have Transgressed — Do Not Despair of God's Mercy'; the Pairing of Khawf [Fear] and Raja' [Hope] as the Twin Poles of Quranic Spiritual Psychology) Is Read in Ismaili Ta'wil as the Mu'min's Hope Grounded Specifically in the Imam's Promise of Walayah-Acceptance, and the Contrast With the Despair [Ya's] of Those Who Have No Batin-Access

In Ismaili ta'wil, al-Raja' (الرَّجَاء — Hope, Hopeful Anticipation, Expectation of Mercy; from *r-j-w*: to hope, to expect, to anticipate; raja' = the expectation of something desired from a source believed capable of providing it; in Islamic spiritual psychology, raja' is one of the two core orientations — khawf [fear of God's displeasure] and raja' [hope for God's mercy]; neither alone is sufficient; together they form the balanced spiritual attitude; Quranic usages: [1] 2:218 'inna alladhina amanu wa-haajaru wa-jaahadu fi sabilillah ula'ika yarju rahmatallah' [those who believe, emigrate, and strive in God's path — these may hope for God's mercy]; the 'yarju' [they hope] is not guaranteed but grounded in the right actions; [2] 39:53 the great verse of hope: 'qul ya 'ibadiya alladhina asrafu 'ala anfusihim la taqnatu min rahmatillah; innallaha yaghfiru al-dhunuba jami'an' [Say: O My servants who have transgressed against themselves — do not despair of God's mercy; God forgives all sins; He is the Forgiving, the Merciful]; this verse is among the Quran's broadest assurances; [3] the contrasting ya's [despair]: 12:87 'only the disbelieving people despair of God's mercy'; 15:56 'who despairs of his Lord's mercy except the erring?'; ya's [despair] is in the Quran a mark of unbelief, not humility; the Sufi reception: khawf and raja' as the two wings of the bird of prayer; the mystic who has only fear crashes and burns; the one who has only hope floats complacently and accomplishes nothing; the tradition of 'flying with two wings' [the balanced Sufi]; al-Ghazali's treatment of khawf and raja' in Ihya' 'Ulum al-Din; Ismaili ta'wil of al-raja': [1] hope grounded in a specific promise: Ismaili raja' is not diffuse optimism but grounded expectation based on the Imam's walayah promise; the mu'min who has taken bay'ah has the Imam's promise of rida [divine pleasure] and acceptance; their raja' is grounded in this specific covenant rather than in generic hope; [2] the contrast with ya's in ta'wil: 12:87's 'only disbelieving people despair' is in ta'wil the statement that those who have rejected walayah have no grounded hope — their relationship to divine mercy is indirect and unmediated; the mu'min's raja' is stronger precisely because it is mediated through the Imam's promise; [3] 2:218's three conditions in ta'wil: believing [iman], emigrating [hijra], and striving [jihad] are in ta'wil: [a] bay'ah [the iman of walayah]; [b] the hijra from zahir-alone to batin-access [the cognitive and spiritual migration]; [c] the da'wa's work of transmitting ta'wil [the jihad of the spirit]; those who have done these three things may ground their raja' in the Imam's covenant; [4] 39:53's universality in ta'wil: 'God forgives all sins' — in ta'wil, the primary sin is zahir-only existence without batin-access; even a person who has lived entirely in zahir can take bay'ah and receive the Imam's rida; the universality of forgiveness reflects the universality of the walayah-offer; [5] raja' and rida: the mu'min's raja' is specifically the anticipation of the Imam's rida [pleased acceptance]; having received bay'ah, the mu'min has reason to hope for this rida — a grounded rather than a wishful hope; [6] raja' as motivator for da'wa: the da'i who has raja' (confident hope) rather than ya's (despair) about the success of ta'wil-transmission is the effective da'i; raja' in the da'wa work is the confident anticipation that those approached can receive walayah) is the Ismaili theology of grounded hope within walayah.