Shadian
I saw a pretty Chinese lady in tudung awaiting us as we
alighted the coaster, which departed from Kunming almost three hours earlier.
Khatijah Wang later informed us Zaharah is the local government officer
appointed to meet us. It was an awesomely huge and beautiful mosque built
entirely from the local people’s funds. It is said to be able to hold 10,000
people in prayers and is the pride of the local Muslims. The small electronic
board next to the mimbar showing current prayer times, had the waqt entirely in
Chinese characters next to the time of prayers and it was an invigorating sight
to Malay Muslims like me who I guess always hold a quiet secret wish that all their
fellow Chinese Malaysians are also Muslims. Wouldn’t that be just awesome? Being
just the true Shongti or brothers in Mandarin, that I suspect all Malaysians
dream of.
Shadian this quaint little town to the south east of Kunming
holds only about 20,000 of the entire State’s Muslim population of 800,000.
They are definitely less than the 100,000 or so in rural North east Chao Tong
but they are an industrious and invigorating population contributing almost RMB4
billion, and at its peak RMB14 billion, to the State GDP. This industriousness
was epitomized by the elegant looking youngish entrepreneur Aishah Ma who
greeted us earlier at her family’s halal instant noodles factory in Najiyen,
the sister Muslim town of Shadian. Aishah said she is the youngest of seven
children of her late businessman’s father, a respected leader in the local
community.
Khatijah our guide and friend who speaks English with the ever-present
Malaysian ‘lah’, explained Ma is actually a short form for Muhammad. During the Yuan Dynasty the Chinese Muslims
were asked to Sinonised their name to assimilate further into Chinese society.
The majority of the Muslims in China are of the Hui race who display traces of
Arabic or Central Asian descent. Hui we
are informed literally means people who wants to go back ; that wish is of
course now cast to the wind and they are as Chinese as the majority Han.
Khatijah further explained like Ma which is the shortened form of Muhammad they
also have Chinese surnames like Na, Sa, Ru and Ding, which you’ve guessed it, is
the shortened form of Nasarudin the son of the first Muslim Governor called Governor
Zahid. I heard that explanation not without a tinge of pride, imagining myself
as a Chinese State Governor in days of old.
In Shadian we met Imam Daud, the Ahom (Imam) of Shadian
Great Mosque, students Ibrahim and Musa, and Khatijah’s sister and auntie
called Fatimah and Mariam. Khatijah explained traditionally the local imam will
be invited to name all new born babies and hence the preponderance of Khatijah.
Aishah, Fatimah and Mariam in her hometown. In order to not confused the local
school teachers each Muslim child also carry a Chinese name. So she is Khatijah
Wang Zhe and Aishah the entrepreneur is Aishah Ai Tse. I wonder what the Muslim
governor’s Chinese name was.
The hospitality of our hosts wherever we were was overwhelming.
As usual we were treated to an 18 dishes dinner. We were informed there was a
circular from Beijing requesting the number of dishes to be reduced for guests
of honour. We understand the Chinese Provinces appealed this circular and
compromised at a maximum of 30 dishes. We were glad our hosts did not take full
advantage of this relaxation of the rules. The food as usual were delicious but
one can only take so much of a good thing.
The province we were in is supposed to be one of the
backward provinces but with bullet trains, and twin towers amidst the
glimmering skyscrapers we were hard put to seek the backwardness in the capital
city of 8 million. We also forget sometimes that a state in China can be bigger
than most countries in South East Asia in terms of size and population. With a population of 1.4 billion people they
are slightly bigger than Malaysia’s 31 million. With such a cutely sized
population that we can hold our heads up high to a nation/continent of 1.4
billion in some areas is something we can appreciate with a tinge of pride. We
teach them at what we are good at, and they do appreciate that and if we can
instill a little bit of dakwah in our efforts we may just plant the seeds of a
hopeful harvest in the future. May Allah swt guide us. We pray the blessings of
Allah swt on the roh of Sa’ad ibni Abi Waqqas r.a the Sahabat sent by
Rasulullah s.a.w during his lifetime, and the father of almost 100 million
Muslims in China now.
