The Reflowering of Islam in China

Preface Note by Dailin Nur Editor:

A friend told this writer that while performing the Hajj in 2004 at Mecca, he met several Uighur Muslims from Urumqi and Kasghar who openly told him that they are the followers of Bekhtasi and Qadiriyya tariqas but unffortunately back in China, they had to practice it in a hidden way and to survive another day. May Allah proctect the muslims in china, make them strong in brotherhood and the deen and spread the light of Islam to the new lost generations of the kuffar.

Recently a notable muslim leader, businessman, activist lady Rebia Kader who vigorously championed the islamic worship and freedom of ethnic Uighurs was nominated for Nobel Peace prize. She was jailed many years, later exiled to America and still propagating from overseas. Another dedicated East Turkistan muslim leader was Abdal Jalil Karkash where he operate a Islamic center in Germany for exiled and persecuted muslims across central Asia and Europe. We as muslim one ummah must support and help these noble muslims in china to keep the deen strong and may Allah guides them alway, and to produce new scholars, awliya, ulama, leaders and salihun that strive in His Path.

The Second Tide of Islam in China : Spread of Sufic Brotherhood

A young Chinese murid/disciple whom destined to be a great sufi shaykh was told by Nashqabandi teacher Khawja Afaq in 1672, after receiving the initial training in Middle East and Central Asia was told :

“ I am not to be your (complete/perfect) Teacher (yu er fei shi ),
my Ancient Teaching is not to be passed to you, your real Shaykh
has already crossed the Eastern Sea and arrived in Eastern land
(of China). You must therefore return home quickly, and you
will become a famous (sufi) Teacher in the land (later)”.

This student was famously known as Master Qi Jingyi ( Shaykh Hilal-addin)or Qi Doazhu. He was buried in Linxia’s great tomb which became an active center of Qadiriyya Sufism in china. He had preached Islam in the province ofGuandong, Guangxi,Yunnan, Guizhou and Ningxia before his death in 1674. Another record traced that Qi Jingyi had studied in the Prophet Illuminated City of Madina under the renown mystic Shaykh Ibrahim al-Kurani of the Shattariyya-Qadiriyya Tariqa, the same teacher of the Sumatra ulama Abdul Rauf Fansuri ( author of Umdatul Muhtajin).

The main Qadiri teaching are :

“ Those who know their self, clearly will know Allah”
(man arafa nafsahu, fa qad arafa Rabbahu)

and “ The Awliya-saints help us to know-correct ourselves first before knowing Allah (perfectly in worship and devotion)”.

There are three stages of sufic teaching are known in Chinese expressions as

-Sharia / Chang Dao
-Tariqa / Zhong Dao
- Haqiqah / Zhen Cheng / Zhi Dao.

Joseph Flectcher ‘s cogent observation is worth citing : “ many sufi reforms spread throughout china during the decades of Qing Dynasty. Increased travels and communication between muslims both east and west, generated revival and exposition to new teaching.

There are now 4 main menhuan tariqa exist in china : the Tariqa of Qadiriyya (traced back to shaykh Abdal Qadir al-Jilani), Jahriyya and Khufiyya (from Shaykh Bahauddin Nashqabandi) and Kubrawiyya ( from Shaykh Najmuddin al-Kubrawi of Persia). Interesting enough, the sufic text/poems of Mathnawi of Maulana Rumi are still recited/ chanted in Ningxia province until today”.

According to another sufic saying – ‘True Tao/Way are unceasing (Ti tao wu she ) which means that authentic sufic paths will always exist and sustained by the power, decree and overflowing of Allah’s immense knowledge, secrets and lights deposited through His Awliya/Friends. The Khufiyya menhuan preferred silent zikr remembrance of God. It is more suited to the hostile opposition from the Chinese governments which sought to assimilate them.

Shaykh Ma Laichi was the founder of Nasqabandi in china. From 1728-1733, Ma Laichi went to hajj to Mecca, then passing to Yemen and Bukhara wher he studied with several sufi masters. He emphasised on a more active participation in society beside infusion of knowledge, zikr and reverence of past saints. The Nashqabandi Jahriyya was another important sufic order in china founded by Shaykh Ma Mingxin a dynamic leader. His teaching was thought to be novel, heterodox and subject to many conflicts in north west china. He preached the vocal-loud zikr (jahri).

Many of his murids stated that : “ The root of our Way is from Arabia, the branches and leaves are in China” This remind us of the Prophetic Hadith :‘ Seek knowledge even unto China’.

After extensive search, Fletcher discovered that Ma Mingxin spiritual lineage was connected to a Nasqhbandi sufi named shaykh Abu Duha Halik from Yemen. This sufic silsila contained in the documnents found by a missionary FW Martin Taylor who was based in Jinxi, Ningxia.

After him, there are other sufi shaykhs such as Ma Hualong, Ma Jinxi and Ma Yuanzhang, active until the late 1920s. Gellner suggested that , “ Sufism provide a theory, terminology and technique of leadership for the Chinese muslims for future survival”.

At the 1985 Commemoration Ceremony ( Ermaili) on the death of the Jahriyya founder Ma Mingxin, over 20,000 adherents gathered for 3 days at his tomb complex at Langzhou for zikr, prayers and cultural/business activites as well. Eventually, the Chinese Government allowed the Provincial Islamic Society to rebuilt the centre as tourism attraction.

The exclusivity of sufi orders in china illustrates the crucial identity and authority for the Hui Muslims. Anyone can enter the orders through ritual vow (ba’aya) or by birth, but seldom the murids maintain allegiance to 2 menhuan-tariqas at once.

The well acceptance of Islamic teaching by the Ming Emperor can be shown in an imperial edict which read :

“ The Confucian study can order men and complete tasks (in society) but it is inadequate for penetrating the Unseen reality or understandingthe transformation of Nature.

The other similar sufic sayings to attract the Chinese by comparing Confucius
and Lao Tzu to the Messenger of Islam are : “ A thousand sages have only one heart (inner truth) and ten thousands years have only one principle” and “ Their hearts are One, therefore their Ways are the same from (Divine Source)”.

There are another two great Chinese Ulama and Sufi Teachers widely acknowledged in the 1500-1700 century namely Imam Wang Daiyue and Shaykh Liu Chi whom masterly employed the Confucian ethics and Taoist classical philosophy imbued with Islamic light, wisdom and Tawhid/Quranic teachings to replace/renew the lost/decayed Ancients Teaching of the sages. They travelled extensively for da’wa and debate with Chinese scholars and monks, many of them embraced Islam after the illuminating exchanges. They are both proficient in Mandarin, Arabic and even Persian scripts/language. The early kitab on Aqidah by an-Nasafi were translated into Chinese as early in 1300. Dr.William Chittick had recently edited and translated an abridged version of Jami al- Lawaih (Gleams of Spiritual Lights) by Wang Daiyue and Liu Chih into English from mandarin texts.

Insya’Allah, we hope to publish more insightful articles on Islam in China and how the new generation preserved their unique Hui identity and keep the light of Qing zhen Jiao bright and shining. In another encounter with the real Mr.Shu Yumin showed us the potential attracting new muslims only if we are ready to hold genuine dialogue and exchange of understanding on the fragmented Chinese philosophy and delusion of the materialistic atheistic society in need of spiritual awakening.