A Neo-Confucian Muslim Ponders the Creating God

from Ma Zhu, Qingzhen zhinan (The Compass of Islam), juan 2.24a-31b

translated by Guangda Zhang and Jonathan Lipman

 

Introduction.  Ma Zhu (1640-1711), a Muslim native of Yunnan province, grew up during the turbulent mid-seventeenth century, when the Manchus consolidated their Qing dynastyıs hold over all of what had been the Ming state and much more.  Educated primarily in the Confucian curriculum and a well-known local scholar in his youth, he developed an abiding interest in Islam only in his twenties, when he traveled to the Manchusı capital of Beijing and spent ten years engaged in Islamic study in the cityıs madrasas, mastering Arabic and Persian in the process.

Ma Zhu found most Chinese Muslimsı understanding of their faith to be shallow and riddled with error, so he undertook to write a complete explanation and justification of Islam in the literary language of China, a huge compendium which he called Qingzhen Zhinan, the compass (or guide) of Islam.  Unlike some other Sino-Muslim writers, he chose not to translate Arabic and Persian texts into Chinese but rather to create a Chinese text from scratch, incorporating Islamic material as he needed it.  He was, after all, an accomplished writer of Chinese, a candidate in the civil service examinations, and a proud member of the Chinese literary establishment.  He was also an important member of the Sino-Muslim literate elite, a group of writers who produced hundreds of texts during the Qing period.  These writings ranged from primers for children (³The Islamic Three-Character Classic²) to abstruse philosophical treatises deeply influenced by Sufism (³Islam, Nature, and Principle²).

Scholars have disagreed as to whether Ma Zhu and his colleagues directed their work primarily at Chinese Muslims or at a non-Muslim audience.  Certainly one of his tasks lay in demonstrating that Islam was entirely compatible with the values of Chinese culture and therefore a civilized Dao, a legitimate Way.  This might have helped to justify their differences from their neighbors, such as endogamy and pork avoidance, which Muslims maintained in a variety of settings in China.  But in attempting to justify Islam, Ma Zhu also had to make philosophical arguments to demonstrate his religionıs superior understanding.  This is particularly clear with regard to the origins of the cosmos. 

As Prof. F. Mote and many other scholars have noted, Chinese intellectual culture included no Creator external to the cosmos.  Neo-Confucians, long the dominant school of thought among the Chinese elite, held that the cosmos had originated from the Beyond-Ultimate, or wuji, an uncreated entity which (unconsciously) generated the Great Ultimate, taiji, which in turn (and without conscious effort) created Yin and Yang, the paired complementary forces whose dynamic interaction both engendered phenomenal reality and gave it energy.  This chain of transformation could not encompass a Creating God of the kind that the Mediterranean religions‹Judaism, Christianity, and Islam‹placed at the heart of their faith.  In the chapter translated below, Ma Zhu makes a place for the Islamic Creating God, Allah, Zhenzhu, in Chinese culture.  By drawing on texts and well-known tropes of both Persian-Arabic and Chinese cultures, he sought a satisfying resolution to the dilemma of a foreign religion in a self-confident civilization:  How can we both belong here and maintain our differences without being judged barbarous?

The chapter translated here, on ³true benevolent love,² does more than speculate on the origins of the cosmos.  Ma Zhu tries to convince his audience(s) that reality simply does not make sense without faith in a creating God.  He calls upon both Chinese texts (philosophies and histories) and Islamic texts (Qurıan, Hadith) to make his arguments, which include the conventional notion that only a Great Craftsman could create so vast and complex a universe as we see around us.  Our senses, too, are called upon as evidence of Godıs power‹our sense organs are merely pathways for the sensory stimuli that only God could create.  The next chapter of the Qingzhen Zhinan, ³Cognition of God by Experience,² takes up this theme in greater detail, again using both Chinese and Islamic proof-texts.  This text must therefore be seen as an inner part of a connected argument, made within the vocabulary and often the textual tradition of Neo-Confucianism, for faith in a unitary, creative, judgmental non-Chinese God.  As Muslims in China often discovered, Ma Zhu had taken on a formidable task.

The Original Text

³True Benevolent Love² [zhenci][1]

            God[2] flows into His slaves' hearts as formless and featureless[3] bright light and manifests [Himself] in the myriad forms and appearances of the mountains, rivers, and earth.[4]  Only thereafter can food and clothing, artifice and craft be created by human efforts.  This is analogous to the five grains, flowers, and fruits [which must be] planted in the earth, for only can then their flavors and types, colors and fragrances each reveal its [particular] character.  From this we may know that though the myriad things are produced by the earth, this is not [done by] the water and earth's own accord.  Though the myriad [human] activities come from the heart-mind, this is not [done by] human beings' own volition.   Reasoning from this point, [those who claim that the actions of ancient innovators]--Fuxi's drawing the Eight Trigrams, Cangjie's creation of Chinese characters, Rongcheng's design of the calendar, Suiren's discovery of fire, Youchao's construction of shelter, Huangdi's making clothing, Shennong's tasting the hundred [medicinal] herbs, Houji's distinguishing [among] the five grains, Yiya's seasoning with the flavors, and Shikuang's tuning the [musical] pitch-pipes--are due to the innovators' own abilities are rebelling against God.[5] 

            Dragons can soar, tigers can bite, bulls can gore, horses can kick, cocks can rouse, dogs can guard, apes can climb, rats can burrow, silkworms can spin, spiders can make a web, ants can form ranks, bees can make honey--their forms are different, so too their special abilities; their diets vary, as do their voices.  These are analogous to artisans making tools.  Though their forms and collection are dissimilar--the square and round, horizontal and vertical, small and large, long and short--each is appropriate to its function.  We can see the subtle working of their use and know the craftsman's remarkable skill.  No one, gazing on the craftsman's uncanny skill, could possibly call it the thing's own inherent nature.  Why do bells not give birth to bells?  Why do drums not give birth to drums?  Can a wooden horse whinny, or a stone cow low?[6] 

            By extension, we may expand the argument--fire is hot and water cold, metal is hard and wood soft.  Although that is the fundamental nature of these four things, the source to endow [them] with cold and heat, hardness and softness can only lie in God's omnipotence.  The various schools of [Chinese] thinkers have not understood the original Mover of creation.  They say that Beyond-Ultimate[7] gave birth to the Great Ultimate, which could not but transform and generate Yin and Yang.  Yin and Yang could not but transform and give birth to phenomenal reality [the myriad things].  Pushing back before the Beyond-Ultimate [in their theory], there is no Master to rely on, and they take Heaven and Earth as in-and-of-themselves [uncreated].[8]  [For them] sageliness and stupidity derive from the quality of qi [psychophysical stuff[9]], death and life from the rotation of karma,[10] intelligence and talent as belonging [entirely] to personal ability.  No wonder that ignorant men and stupid women mistake the created thing for the creating God and the formed thing for the Ancestor of the formless.  Thus do they invert the root and branch and are incapable of fathoming the surface and the core.  They live like drunkards and die in a dream, drifting [passively] along without ideas of their own.[11]

            Believing this, [we may ask] why the chrysanthemum does not open in spring, the peach does not bloom in autumn, the plum does not flower in summer, and the lotus does not blossom in winter, and [why] it has eternally been thus.  It cannot change even by one season, cannot increase even by one thing.  Thus can we know that the rotation of the heavens, the coming and going of sun and moon, the cycle of the four seasons, the growth and decay of things--how could they be made uniform without God?  Even Yin and Yang cannot govern themselves.

            This is analogous to [the sense organs of] the human body.  That which touches the eye becomes color, that which touches the ear becomes sound, that which touches the nose becomes odor, that which touches the mouth becomes taste.  Without eyes one may gaze but never see, without ears one may listen but never hear, without a nose one may sniff but never smell, without a mouth one may flavor but never taste.  Color, sound, scent, and taste belong to phenomenal things, and they are the nourishment for eye, ear, nose, and tongue.  Eye, ear, nose, and tongue belong to the body, and they are the borrowed path for sight, hearing, smell and taste.  Sight, hearing, smell, and taste belong to the natural disposition,[12] so they are entirely the product of God's creation.  If one commanded the ear to see, the eye to hear, the mouth to smell and the nose to taste, it would transgress their functions, and they could not.  Thus we may know that the Beyond-Ultimate is not God, but without it God's initial commandment could not be manifest.  The Great Ultimate is not God, but without it, God's vast power could not be manifest.  Yin and Yang are not God, but without them, God's subtle workings could not be manifest.  Phenomenal reality is not God, but without it, God's perfect achievement could not be manifest.  Individual nature is not God, but without it, God's perfect benevolence could not be manifest.  If [individual nature] could govern itself,[13] we must ask where would it lodge during deep sleep and after death when, even though it has eyes, ears, nose, and tongue, they are completely detached [from individual nature].[14]

            In ancient times the Prophet Muhammad[15] prophet was walking in the mountains when he saw a man lying prostrate on the ground.  [The prophet] was surprised and said, "When I passed here before, he was lying here.  Now I have returned, and he is still here.  Why could this be?"  Then the archangel Gabriel [Zheboleyile] said to the prophet, "This man has been cultivating merit here for five hundred years.  God endowed [him with] a magic spring and well to slake his thirst, a pomegranate tree which gave two fruits per day to assuage his hunger.  This man prayed to God that, from the moment of his first prostration [koutou],[16] he might be allowed to enter heaven.  God granted his request and said to him, 'Now, due to my benevolent love, I have sent you to a heavenly place of sublime pleasures.'  The man replied, 'This is not God's benevolent love.  I cultivated myself to make it so.'  God accused him of presumptuousness, saying, 'Without me, could you live five hundred years, or have the magic spring and pomegranates--even if you wanted to cultivate yourself [for them], is it within your ability?'  [God] then wished to sentence him to hell, but the man heard the words in fear and trembling and repented his crime, so God allowed him into heaven."  The prophet touched the [man's] body with his hand--the corpse was already old and rotted. 

            Therefore an authoritative text[17] says, "Rely on my God, acknowledge my God."  It is also written, "If God's delight in humankind does not precede humankind's delight in God, who would dare to say suddenly that he loves God?"  This is analogous to children's concern for and attachment to their parents.  If it were not for the parents' concern and attachment preceding the children's, whence would come faithful filiality?[18]  The Qur'an tells us, "When I [God] love a person, I am [become] his ears, eyes, hands, and tongue.  Thereafter he relies on Me to hear, relies on Me to see, relies on Me to grasp, relies on Me to speak."[19]  This is analogous to [the fact that] the traces [evidence] of fire may be found in the warmth of the water [it heated].  The traces [evidence] of spring may be found in the luxuriant growth of trees.  For without fire, water is cool, and without spring, trees are withered. 

            That [we] Muslims can acknowledge God, delight in God, worship God, is due entirely to God's benevolence.  In all these actions, we must cultivate ourselves without arrogance,[20] be full of aspiration but never satisfied [with ourselves].  Even if we made the waters of the sea into inkstones, the mountains into ink, all the plants and trees into pens, and the great earth into paper, we could never [sufficiently] record the perfect benevolence of God.[21]  If heaven and earth were our bodies, the sun and moon the years of our lives, the rivers and deserts our hearts, and the seas and tides our tongues, we could never [sufficiently] praise the perfect benevolence of God. 

            'Umar, leading his troops out to battle, saw two men who looked remarkably alike.[22]  'Umar asked them, "Who are you two?"  They responded, "We are father and son."  'Umar said, "Even father and son needn't resemble one another as much as this!"  The father replied, "Years ago I followed the Prophet into battle.  This boy's mother was pregnant at the time, and not long after I departed she died.  When we returned in victorious triumph, I saw dazzling energy shooting up toward heaven from her grave, and my heart wondered greatly.  The next day I returned [to the grave], and the beams of light were as before.  I thereupon opened the grave and saw this boy suckling at his mother's breast.  I immediately took the boy and closed the grave, returning [home] in tears.  A voice called to me from the air, 'That which was consigned to me, I return to you for the sake of peace.  On that day you entrusted his mother to me; now, for the sake of perfect peace, I return [him] to you.'"  From this we may see that God is eternally merciful.  If we follow His righteous commandments, in life we may attain [our desires], in death we may rely on Him. 

            If behavior is not in accord with justice and actions not in harmony with the Way, if your good works are not for the people and your service not to God, [then] you will not even be able to maintain your own body, not to mention your wife and children.  Muslims,[23] with their whole bodies and souls, inside and outside,[24] must at all times depend on God.  Not only will the descendants achieve God's sole benevolence, but even in moments of desperate plight, crisis, and danger, hidden benevolence [will be with you] even if you cannot discern it. 

            Therefore if cultivation does not rely on God, it will be wasted.  If fame does not rely on God, it will degenerate.  If nobility does not rely on God, it will become coarse.  If wealth does not rely on God, it will become poverty.  If order[25] does not rely on God, it will become disorder.  If stability does not rely on God, it will become endangered.[26]

            In ancient times, the Prophet battled against the Jews.[27]  The two armies approached in battle array, but the [Prophet's] followers showed their cowardice, so the Prophet said, "I am as valiant as Hamza, as brave as 'Ali!  The inner troops are utterly courageous, the outer reinforcements are strong and numerous.  Victory is assured!"  On that day the battle was joined, but the troops lost the way and were soundly defeated.  They had no provisions, and for three days no commands came from heaven.  The Prophet recriminated against himself for his sin of arrogance, and the Heavenly Command then descended.[28]

            Han Gaozu [Liu Bang] had not a square foot of fief [when he began] and won all under heaven; how could he begin so common and end so noble?  [Qin] Ershi held the strongholds of You and Hao [Passes], but despite his impregnable fortresses he perished at the hands of a common soldier; how could he end so weak, having begun so strong?  Cao Cao's legions a million strong went south of the river and perished in a single fire at Red Cliff, while Ban Chao took thirty-six men and pacified the thirty states of the Shanshan.[29]  The withdrawal or maintenance of heavenly commandments, the forward or backward direction of people's hearts, strength or weakness, victory or defeat, achievement or failure, profit or [loss], [in all of these] God silently takes an active part in determining the outcome.  Only when [we] simply trust to this truth, then can it be eternally reliable.  For if we take silently-aided ability as our own ability, silently-consigned possessions as our own possessions, this is the sin of arrogance, not merely a calamity for the world [but even worse than that].    

 

[1]  Zhenci is not a standard term in any of the Chinese religious or philosophical traditions.  This chapter defines God's relationship to humankind as one of love (Ch. ci'ai) expressed in benevolent acts from creation to miracles to the regular rhythms of nature.  Its diction and rhetoric mark it as an apology, a sermon, directed at a Muslim audience in order to convince them of Godıs reality and at a non-Muslim audience to convince them of Islamıs legitimacy as a civilized Dao. 

[1]  Ma uses the Sino-Muslim term zhenzhu, True Master, to name the unitary Islamic deity.  Though some texts use the transliteration Anla (Ar. Allah), the translation zhenzhu had become quite popular by the late 17th century.  It is related etymologically to earlier translated Chinese names for the monotheistic deity in both Roman Catholic and Jewish texts.  Here and throughout the text, Ma elevates Godıs name to a position above the rest of the text at the top of a new column, a standard device of veneration usually reserve in Chinese texts for the secular emperor.  He does the same with the names of the Prophet (or his epithets) and the Qurıan, but to a position one level below Godıs name. 

[1]  wusexiang, a Buddhist term which Ma joins with the Nur Muhammadiya, the Prophetıs light which illumines the universe.

[1] Guangda Zhang finds this opening sentence to have a peculiarly non-Chinese flavor, and its imagery is reminiscent of the final chapters of the Qurıan, which describe Godıs majesty as manifest in the majesty of the natural world.

[1] Ma Zhu could have chosen Middle Eastern culture heroes here, but he lists the conventional Chinese myths of human invention instead.  Most of their stories date from the 4th-3rd centuries BCE and may be found in the Shi Ji and Huainanzi.

[1] This imagery, arguing for the existence of God from the complexity and wondrous qualities of phenomenal reality, is reminiscent of Sufi articulations of love of God.

[1]  The wuji, also translated as Non-Ultimate, was held by some Neo-Confucians to be the force which lay prior to and above the taiji, the Great or Supreme Ultimate, in the generation of the cosmos.  This theory may be found in the work of many Song period scholars, but it finds its fullest expression in the taiji diagram of Zhou Tunyi.  Ma here claims that the Neo-Confucians needed only one more step to correct understanding, the prior and superior existence of God the Creator above the wuji. 

[1] Ma Zhu uses the term ziran, which means ³nature² or ³natural² in modern Chinese but in the 17th c. had a more abstract implication.  Some translators prefer the English neologism ³self-so² for this term.

[1]  Qi, often translated as "vital energy," in Neo-Confucian philosophical speculation included all the physical and psycho-spiritual endowment of humankind.  This translation is Daniel Gardner's.

[1]  Given his use of terms such as these, Ma was clearly aware of the Buddhist-Confucian-Daoist synthesis characteristic of late imperial China, and he refutes their views of the human place in the cosmos one by one.

[1] Here and below Ma Zhuıs argumentation resonates with a standard Muslim philosophical position, that non-believers are blind and deaf, or like drunkards in their senseless ignorance

.

[1]  xingling, a difficult term which combines "nature" (xing) and the internal, permanent, invisible, soul-like ling.  Since this passage deals with physical ability, we have translated ling as "disposition."  It will convey different meanings in other compounds below.

[1]  Zizhu, literally "be its own master," assert its independence.

[1] Maıs argument on the senses and consciousness parallels Zhu Xiıs 12th c. discussions of li (principle) and qi (psychophysical stuff), which had become canonical by the 17th c.

[1] In this passage, Ma Zhu elevates the term ³prophet² to the top of a new line, indicating that he means the Prophet Muhammad rather than some other member of that illustrious category.  The elevation in Chinese takes the place of the conventional epithets (e.g., Upon Whom Be Peace) which invariably follow the Prophetıs name in Arabic or Persian texts.  This anecdote is not taken from any standard Muslim source, but it embodies a common Sufi trope‹success in ³spiritual athleticism² (as Hodgson called Sufi practice) precedes the sin of arrogance and pride, salvation from which depends entirely on Godıs will and mercy.

[1]  Here Ma uses the conventional Chinese term koutou to refer to the prostrations before God which are part of every Muslim worship service.

[1] Ma Zhu does not elevate the word jing to the top of a new line here, indicating that he does not intend the Qurıan as his source.

[1] This analogy from a Muslim source to a Chinese virtue (xiao, filial piety) encapsulates Ma Zhuıs approach to the texts and values of his two cultures‹one can be used to demonstrate the other by analogy or by parallel citation, and the two are mutually compatible and reinforcing.

[1] This quotation is actually from the Hadith, not the Qurıan. 

[1] This passage is reminiscent of the Zhuangzi.

[1] Here Ma Zhu paraphrases the Qurıan (18:109 and 31:27) for his own purpose, reshaping the Qurıanic metaphor by transforming Godıs word into Godıs action in creation of the natural world. 

[1] This story, with its Sufi image of light emanating from a grave, is not taken from any standard Muslim source.

[1]  Here Ma uses the "insider" transliteration Mu'min (Arabic for "believers") for "Muslims," rather than the conventional Sino-Muslim translation Huimin.

[1]  Shenxin neiwai, literally "the body, the heart-mind, within and without," indicating the total human being.

[1]  The use of zhi, "government," in this passage, clearly points to political order.

[1] This passage utilizes conventional Chinese attributes of a good world‹cultivation, fame, nobility, wealth, political order, and stability‹and places them in the power of a Muslim God.

[1] This story represents Ma Zhuıs retelling of the battle of Hunayn, in which the arrogance of the Muslim troops, not the Prophet as Ma has it, caused a fatra, a cessation of Godıs commandments, for three days.

[1] Capitalization is indicated by Ma Zhuıs elevation of ³Heaven² to the top of a new line.

[1] These allusions all refer to climactic events of the Qin, Han, and Three Kingdoms periods in Chinese historiography.  All are standard examples of the unexpected, but of course non-Muslim Chinese sources would never attribute them to the actions of a Muslim God.  If they sought non-human causes for these reversals of fortune, non-Muslim authors would have invoked the Will of Heaven.  Ma Zhu, on the other hand, uses them to demonstrate that his readers, though they might be familiar with these events, do not understand them unless they attribute them to Godıs silent but active role in human affairs.

 



[1]  Zhenci is not a standard term in any of the Chinese religious or philosophical traditions.  This chapter defines God's relationship to humankind as one of love (Ch. ci'ai) expressed in benevolent acts from creation to miracles to the regular rhythms of nature.  Its diction and rhetoric mark it as an apology, a sermon, directed at a Muslim audience in order to convince them of Godıs reality and at a non-Muslim audience to convince them of Islamıs legitimacy as a civilized Dao. 

[2]  Ma uses the Sino-Muslim term zhenzhu, True Master, to name the unitary Islamic deity.  Though some texts use the transliteration Anla (Ar. Allah), the translation zhenzhu had become quite popular by the late 17th century.  It is related etymologically to earlier translated Chinese names for the monotheistic deity in both Roman Catholic and Jewish texts.  Here and throughout the text, Ma elevates Godıs name to a position above the rest of the text at the top of a new column, a standard device of veneration usually reserve in Chinese texts for the secular emperor.  He does the same with the names of the Prophet (or his epithets) and the Qurıan, but to a position one level below Godıs name. 

[3]  wusexiang, a Buddhist term which Ma joins with the Nur Muhammadiya, the Prophetıs light which illumines the universe.

[4] Guangda Zhang finds this opening sentence to have a peculiarly non-Chinese flavor, and its imagery is reminiscent of the final chapters of the Qurıan, which describe Godıs majesty as manifest in the majesty of the natural world.

[5] Ma Zhu could have chosen Middle Eastern culture heroes here, but he lists the conventional Chinese myths of human invention instead.  Most of their stories date from the 4th-3rd centuries BCE and may be found in the Shi Ji and Huainanzi.

[6] This imagery, arguing for the existence of God from the complexity and wondrous qualities of phenomenal reality, is reminiscent of Sufi articulations of love of God.

[7]  The wuji, also translated as Non-Ultimate, was held by some Neo-Confucians to be the force which lay prior to and above the taiji, the Great or Supreme Ultimate, in the generation of the cosmos.  This theory may be found in the work of many Song period scholars, but it finds its fullest expression in the taiji diagram of Zhou Tunyi.  Ma here claims that the Neo-Confucians needed only one more step to correct understanding, the prior and superior existence of God the Creator above the wuji. 

[8] Ma Zhu uses the term ziran, which means ³nature² or ³natural² in modern Chinese but in the 17th c. had a more abstract implication.  Some translators prefer the English neologism ³self-so² for this term.

[9]  Qi, often translated as "vital energy," in Neo-Confucian philosophical speculation included all the physical and psycho-spiritual endowment of humankind.  This translation is Daniel Gardner's.

[10]  Given his use of terms such as these, Ma was clearly aware of the Buddhist-Confucian-Daoist synthesis characteristic of late imperial China, and he refutes their views of the human place in the cosmos one by one.

[11] Here and below Ma Zhuıs argumentation resonates with a standard Muslim philosophical position, that non-believers are blind and deaf, or like drunkards in their senseless ignorance

.

[12]  xingling, a difficult term which combines "nature" (xing) and the internal, permanent, invisible, soul-like ling.  Since this passage deals with physical ability, we have translated ling as "disposition."  It will convey different meanings in other compounds below.

[13]  Zizhu, literally "be its own master," assert its independence.

[14] Maıs argument on the senses and consciousness parallels Zhu Xiıs 12th c. discussions of li (principle) and qi (psychophysical stuff), which had become canonical by the 17th c.

[15] In this passage, Ma Zhu elevates the term ³prophet² to the top of a new line, indicating that he means the Prophet Muhammad rather than some other member of that illustrious category.  The elevation in Chinese takes the place of the conventional epithets (e.g., Upon Whom Be Peace) which invariably follow the Prophetıs name in Arabic or Persian texts.  This anecdote is not taken from any standard Muslim source, but it embodies a common Sufi trope‹success in ³spiritual athleticism² (as Hodgson called Sufi practice) precedes the sin of arrogance and pride, salvation from which depends entirely on Godıs will and mercy.

[16]  Here Ma uses the conventional Chinese term koutou to refer to the prostrations before God which are part of every Muslim worship service.

[17] Ma Zhu does not elevate the word jing to the top of a new line here, indicating that he does not intend the Qurıan as his source.

[18] This analogy from a Muslim source to a Chinese virtue (xiao, filial piety) encapsulates Ma Zhuıs approach to the texts and values of his two cultures‹one can be used to demonstrate the other by analogy or by parallel citation, and the two are mutually compatible and reinforcing.

[19] This quotation is actually from the Hadith, not the Qurıan. 

[20] This passage is reminiscent of the Zhuangzi.

[21] Here Ma Zhu paraphrases the Qurıan (18:109 and 31:27) for his own purpose, reshaping the Qurıanic metaphor by transforming Godıs word into Godıs action in creation of the natural world. 

[22] This story, with its Sufi image of light emanating from a grave, is not taken from any standard Muslim source.

[23]  Here Ma uses the "insider" transliteration Mu'min (Arabic for "believers") for "Muslims," rather than the conventional Sino-Muslim translation Huimin.

[24]  Shenxin neiwai, literally "the body, the heart-mind, within and without," indicating the total human being.

[25]  The use of zhi, "government," in this passage, clearly points to political order.

[26] This passage utilizes conventional Chinese attributes of a good world‹cultivation, fame, nobility, wealth, political order, and stability‹and places them in the power of a Muslim God.

[27] This story represents Ma Zhuıs retelling of the battle of Hunayn, in which the arrogance of the Muslim troops, not the Prophet as Ma has it, caused a fatra, a cessation of Godıs commandments, for three days.

[28] Capitalization is indicated by Ma Zhuıs elevation of ³Heaven² to the top of a new line.

[29] These allusions all refer to climactic events of the Qin, Han, and Three Kingdoms periods in Chinese historiography.  All are standard examples of the unexpected, but of course non-Muslim Chinese sources would never attribute them to the actions of a Muslim God.  If they sought non-human causes for these reversals of fortune, non-Muslim authors would have invoked the Will of Heaven.  Ma Zhu, on the other hand, uses them to demonstrate that his readers, though they might be familiar with these events, do not understand them unless they attribute them to Godıs silent but active role in human affairs.