Articles Collection: Saad bin abi waqas

Articles Collection: Saad bin abi waqas

1. Islam in China



Islam in China dates back to the days of the Calipha te of Uthm an ibn Affan
(radiAllahu anhu), the third Caliph of I slam . After trium phing over the Byzantine,
Rom ans and the Persians, the Caliph sent a deputation to China in 29 AH (650 CE,
eighteen years after the death of th e Prophet Muham m ad (salAllahu alayhi
wasalam ). The Ancient Record of the Tang Dynasty describes a landm ark visit to
China by Saad ibn Abi Waqqas (radiAllah u anhu), one of the com panions and
m aternal uncle of the Prophet Muham m ad (salAllahu alayhi wasalam ) in 650 C.E.
This event is considered to be the birth of I slam in China.
Saad I bn Waaqas (radiAllahu anhu) invi ted the Chinese Em peror Yung-Wei to
em brace I slam . Although the em peror Yung-Wei, found I slam to be a bit too
restrictive for his taste, he respected its teachings. To show his adm iration
for I slam , the em peror gave Saad (radiAllahu anhu) com plete freedom to propagate
I slam and approved the establishm ent of China’s first m osque at Ch’ang-an. The
m agnificent Canton city m osque known to this day as the ‘Mem orial Mosque.’ That
m osque still stands today after fourteen centuries.
As tim e passed, relations between the Chinese and the Muslim heartland continued
to improve. Many Muslim businessm en, visitors, and traders began to com e to China
for com m ercial and religious reasons. [ Arabs had already established trade in the
area before Prophet Muham m ad (salAllahu alayhi wasa lam ).] The Um ayyads and
Abbasids sent six delegations to China, all of which were warm ly received by the
Chinese.
The Muslim presence was resented by th e disbelievers. However, their scorn was
replaced by respect when their provocation m et with their resounding defeat at the
hand of a sm all Muslim force in 133 AH (751 C.E.) This victory eventually led to

2. control over the entire Central Asia, and in 138 A.H. (756 C.E.), Caliph Mansur
posted a unit of 4,000 troops to consolidate the Muslim influence.
These victories opened the doors of China for the Muslims to spread and propagate
the faith. Over the years, m any Muslim s settled in China and they m arried Chinese
wom en. They established m osques, schools and m adrasas. Students from as far as
Russia and I ndia would attend these m adrasas. It is reported that in the 1790’s,
there was as m any as 30,000 I slam ic students, and the city of Bukhara, - the
birthplace of I m am Bukhari, one of the forem ost compilers of hadith - which was
then part of China, cam e to be known as the “ Pillar of I slam .”
The Muslim s who im m igrated to China eventually began to have a great econom ic
im pact and influence on the country. They virtually dom inated the im port/ export
business by the tim e of the Sung Dynasty (960 - 127 9 CE). I ndeed, the office of
Director General of Shipping was consistently held by a Muslim during this period.
I n spite of the econom ic successes the Muslim s enjoyed during these and later tim es,
they were recognized as being fair, law-abiding, and self-disciplined. Thus, there is
no record of appreciable anti-Muslim sentim ent on the part of the Han (Chinese)
people.
By the beginning of the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644 CE) I slam had been nourishing in
China for 700 years. Up to this tim e, the Muslim s had m aintained a separate, alien
status which had its own custom s, language, and traditions and was never totally
integrated with the Han people. Under the Ming Dynasty, generally considered to be
the golden age of I slam in China, Muslim s gradually becam e fully integrated into Han
society.
The early Muslim s in China faced oppression, and the tyrannical Manchu dynasty
(1644-191l) was the harshest era. During this period, five wars were waged against
the Muslim s: Lanchu (1820-28), Che Kanio (1830), Sinkiang (l847), Yunan (1857 )
and Shansi (1861). I n these destructive wars, the Muslim s suffered inestim able
losses. Countless Muslim s were m artyred. Half of Kansu’s population, totalling 15
m illions, was Muslim . Only 5 m illion could escape alive. Chinese Muslim s sustained
sim ilar setbacks in several other sm all and big wars. During the past three centuries,
the Muslim population has decreased at 30% .
The Manchus slaughtered Muslim s and raze d m osques. Led by determ ined leaders
like Yaqoob Beg ( l820-77), Muslim s liberated the whole of Turkestan and set up an
I slam ic state that lasted from 1867 to 1877. The new Turkic-Chinese Muslim power
in Central Asia, com prising of the provinces of Yun an, Szechawan, Shensi and
Kansum , was seen with anxiety by the Ru ssians and the British who had colonial
designs of their own.
The Muslim s, inspired by exam ples of leaders like Ma Mua-Ming-Hsin, scored m any
victories. I n Yunan, the Muslim s, under Tu Wenhsin, routed the em peror’s troops. He
assum ed the nam e of Sultan Sulaym an and rallied the Muslim s of Tibet to rise up
against the Chinese.
During the Mao Tse-tung’s revolution in 1948 the Chinese Muslim s supported him .
The Muslim s also joined his Red Arm y. However, at no stage of their cooperation
with the great Chinese leader did the Muslim s forsake their I slam ic identity even for

3. a while. But at beginning of com m unist rule in China, the Muslim s, as well as other
ethnic m inorities found them selves once again oppressed. They actively struggled
against com m unists before and after the revolution. I n fact, in 1953, the Muslim s
revolted twice in an effort to establish an independent I slam ic state [ in regions
where Muslim s were an overwhelm ing m a jority] . These revolts were brutally
suppressed by Chinese m ilitary force followed by the liberal use of anti-Muslim
propaganda.
At present, according to official statistics there are 28 m illion Muslim in China but
in1936 it was estim ated that the Muslim population was 48 m illion. The governm ent
census of 1982, however, put the num ber m u ch lower, at 15 m illion. By this tim e
total population has increased 3-4 fold. So we can conclude that the total Muslim
population has increased m inim um by that sam e proportion. I n 2000 ,the num ber of
Muslim s in China is estim ated at 200 m illion (I I NA). These Muslim s represent ten
distinct ethnic groups. The largest are the Chinese Hui, who com prise over half of
China’s Muslim population and are scattered throughout all of China. There is also a
high concentration of Hui in the province of Ningsh a in the north.Under the
Com m unist pretext of unification of national education, I slam ic schools were closed
and their students transferred to other schools which taught only Marxism and
Maoism . Other outrages included the closing of over 29,000 m osques, the
widespread torture of im am s, and executions of over 360,000 Muslim s. There are
approxim itly 3,500 m osques in China at present. Today the cam paign for
assim ilation started during the Cultural Revolution has slowed som ewhat and the
Turkic Muslim s have greater freedom to express their cultural identity. The
governm ent has, for instance,

Allowed the reinstatem ent of the Arabic alphabet for use with the Uygur language.
According to population statistics of 1936, the then Kuom ingtang Republic of China
had an estim ated 48,104,240 Muslim s. After the introduction of Mao’s policies, this
num ber was reduced to ten m illion. No official Chinese explanation has ever been
given for this apparentdisappearance of around 38 m illion Muslim s. The m ass
exterm ination and destruction of the Mu slim s of China pales before the m uch
publicized plight of Tibetan m onks or the dem ocratsof Tiannam an Square.
Since religious freedom was declared in 1978, the Chinese Muslim s have not wasted
tim e in expressing their convictions. There are now som e 28,000 m osques in the
entire People’s Republic of China, with 12,000 in the province of Xinjiang.
I n addition, there is a large num ber of im am s available to lead the Muslim
com m unity (in Xinjiang alone there are over 2,800). I slam ic literature can be found
quite easily and there are currently som e eight different translations of the Qur’an in
the Chinese language as well as translations in Uyg ur and the other Turkic
languages. The Muslim s of China have also been given alm ost unrestricted allowance
to m ake the Hajj to Mecca. I n 1986 there were som e 2,300 Chinese Muslim s at Hajj.