Ma Laichi (1681? – 1766?; ), also known as Abu 'l-Futūh Ma Laichi, was a Chinese

Sufi Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

master who brought the

Khufiyya Khufiyya (; borrowed as zh, c=虎夫耶, p=Hǔfūyé) is a tariqa (Sufi order) of Chinese Islam. It was the first tariqa to be established in China and, along with the Jahriyya, Qadiriyya, and Kubrawiyyah, is acknowledged as one of the four o ...

movement to China and created the Huasi ''

menhuan ''Menhuan'' ( zh, s=门宦, t=門宦, p=Ménhuàn) is a term used by the Hui and Uyghur Muslim populations of China to indicate a Chinese Ṣūfī '' ṭarīḳa'' ("order" or "saintly lineage"). The leaders of a ''menhuan'', which usually a ...

'' ( Sufi order) - the earliest and most important Naqshbandi (نقشبندية，納克什班迪) order in Chinese Muslim history.Gladney (1996), pp. 47-48Lipman (1998), p. 65-67 5741-Linxia-Huasi-Gongbei

Life

Afaq Khoja's blessing

Ma Laichi came from a Chinese Muslim family with a military background. His grandfather, Ma Congshan, was a general under the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...

; his father, Ma Jiujun, passed

imperial examination The imperial examination was a civil service examination system in History of China#Imperial China, Imperial China administered for the purpose of selecting candidates for the Civil service#China, state bureaucracy. The concept of choosing bureau ...

s on the military track under the Qing, but instead of joining government service, made a fortune in business. His home was in Hezhou (now called Linxia), one of the main Muslim centers of

Gansu Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...

. According to the legend told by Ma Laichi's followers, Ma Jiajun was still childless at the age of forty, and, desirous to have a son, he went to

Xining Xining is the Capital (political), capital and most populous city of Qinghai province in western China and the largest city on the Tibetan Plateau. As of the 2020 census, it had 2,467,965 inhabitants (2,208,708 as of 2010), of whom 1,954,795 l ...

, to ask for a blessing from Afaq Khoja, a Naqshbandi ''shaykh'' visiting from Kashgar, and a reputed miracle worker. After reciting some prayers, the Kashgarian Sufi master told Ma Jiajun to go back to Hezhou and to marry a certain non-Muslim woman, who had previously been engaged a number of times, but every time her fiancé died before the wedding. Ma Jiajun indeed married that 26-year-old woman, and they had a son. Soon after, all Ma Jiajun's property was destroyed by a fire, and he named his son "Laichi", meaning " ne whocame too late". Rendered destitute by the fire, Ma Jiajun became a tea peddler, travelling in the region between Hezhou and Xining. His boy, meanwhile, studied at the Koranic school run by Khoja Afaq's disciple Ma Tai Baba (, "The Great Father Ma", 1632–1709) in the nearby Milagou (). (apparently, within today's Minhe Hui and Tu Autonomous County). Tai Baba's top student, Ma Laichi had learned everything the school had to offer by the age of 18. Tai Baba ordained the young Ma as an '' ahong'' and initiated him into Sufism, passing onto him the '' barakah'' that he had received from Afaq Khoja.

The great Hajj

According to Ma Tong's chronology of Ma Laichi's life, after 30 years of religious work in the Hezhou region, Ma Laichi left China in 1728 for a

Hajj Hajj (; ; also spelled Hadj, Haj or Haji) is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city for Muslims. Hajj is a mandatory religious duty for capable Muslims that must be carried out at least once in their lifetim ...

to Islam's holy places in the Middle East. In 1728-1733 he studied under a number of Sufi masters in the Arab World (primarily in

Mecca Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above ...

and

Yemen Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in South Arabia, southern Arabia, it borders Saudi Arabia to Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, the north, Oman to Oman–Yemen border, the northeast, the south-eastern part ...

; some versions of his biography also mention

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

and

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

). Due to the scarcity and imprecision of existing Chinese and Arabic sources, different researchers have come up with different versions and dates for Ma Laichi's great

: the standard Chinese account by Ma Tong tells of Ma sailing to Arabia from

Guangzhou Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...

(after studying for 3 months with a famous '' ahong'' there), and coming back by the sea route as well; other accounts have him traveling to the west by land, via Central Asia, and studying for a while in

Bukhara Bukhara ( ) is the List of cities in Uzbekistan, seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan by population, with 280,187 residents . It is the capital of Bukhara Region. People have inhabited the region around Bukhara for at least five millennia, and t ...

. In Mecca, his teacher was the head of the Khafiya '' zawiya'' (Islamic school) there, Muhammad Jibuni Ahmad Agelai (or Ajilai, in other accounts). Another teacher who influenced him greatly was Mawlana Makhdum, who gave Ma Laichi the name Abu 'l-Futūh. Little is known about Makhdum, but

Joseph Fletcher Joseph Francis Fletcher (April 10, 1905 – October 28, 1991) was an American professor who founded the theory of situational ethics in the 1960s. A pioneer in the field of bioethics. Fletcher was a leading academic proponent of the potential b ...

surmised that he may have been an Indian.

The Khufiyya

After returning to China, Ma Laichi established the Hua Si (; " Multicolored Mosque") school (''menhuan'') - the core of the

(الخفية) 虎夫耶 movement in Chinese Islam. The name of the movement - a Chinese form of the Arabic "Khafiyya", i.e. "the silent ones" - refers to its adherents' emphasis on silent

dhikr (; ; ) is a form of Islamic worship in which phrases or prayers are repeatedly recited for the purpose of remembering God. It plays a central role in Sufism, and each Sufi order typically adopts a specific ''dhikr'', accompanied by specific ...

(invocation of God's name). The Khufiyya teachings were characterized by stronger participation in the society, as well as veneration of saints and seeking inspiration at their tombs. Ma Laichi spent 32 years spreading his teaching among the Muslim Hui and Salar people in

and

Qinghai Qinghai is an inland Provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. It is the largest provinces of China, province of China (excluding autonomous regions) by area and has the third smallest population. Its capital and largest city is Xin ...

. He also converted to Islam numerous Tibetan, Mongol, and Monguor-speaking communities in

, sometimes after winning a religious debate with a local " Living Buddha". Some of these communities still belong to the Khufiyya, and their members still revere Ma Laichi as the saint who brought their ancestors into Islam.

Death

After the death of Ma Laichi, his position as the leader of the Khufiyya was inherited by his son, Ma Guobao - an act that came to be strongly criticized by the founder of the competing

Jahriyya Jahriyya (also spelled Jahrīya or Jahriyah) is a '' menhuan'' ( Sufi order) in China, commonly called the New Teaching (''Xinjiao''). Founded in the 1760s by Ma Mingxin, it was active in the late 18th and 19th centuries in what was then Gansu Pr ...

''menhuan'',

Ma Mingxin Ma Mingxin (1719–1781) () was a Chinese Sufi master, the founder of the Jahriyya ''menhuan'' (Naqshbandi Sufi order). * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ma, Laichi 17th-century Chinese people 18th-century Chinese people Hui people Naqshbandi order Chinese Sufis Chinese imams 1680s births 1760s deaths Year of birth uncertain Year of death uncertain Religious leaders in China Sunni Sufis Qing dynasty Muslims