The story of Ma Mingxin

 Ibrahim Ma Mingxin, known as Aziz Muhammad Ameen after his journey to Makkah, was a Hanafi Muslim scholar born in the year 1719, in Kansu. Ma Mingxin was fluent in both Chinese and Arabic languages. He was part of the Hanafi madhab, as it was common amongst the people of his time. Ma Mingxin travelled to Arabia, where he studied under several learned scholars for sixteen years; these scholars included Abdul Khaliq al-Naqshbandi and possibly Ibrahim al-Kurani. Ma Mingxin returned to Kansu in the year 1761, where he spread the teachings of the Arab scholars to his hometown. The people accepted his teachings, and soon he founded his own learning group known as the Jahriyyah.

More people joined the Jahriyyah, and this angered the rival Khufiyyah group. The beliefs of the Jahriyyah contrasted that of the Khufiyyah; the former considered istigatha and saint veneration to be Haram, while the latter encouraged it. The Jahriyyah were not fond of building exquisite and large, decorated mosques, something which the Khufiyyah did. But perhaps, the most well-known difference between both groups is that the Jahriyyah were adherents of loud vocal Dhikr, hence their name has the word “Jahr” which means “loud” in Arabic. While the Khufiyyah supported the idea of silent Dhikr.

Due to differences in beliefs, the Jahriyyah and the Khufiyyah often clashed. But the Jahriyyah suffered most of it. For example, the Khufiyyah once allied with the kuffar government to impose fines and penalities on the Jahriyyah. They even bribed several government officials to arrest the members of Jahriyyah. The government at that time was the Qing Dynasty, who encouraged polytheistic practices and ancestral worship. They never really cared about the Muslims, but they favoured the innovators amongst them. Eventually, the Qing officials were fed up of the constant conflicts between both groups, so they arrested Ma Mingxin and threw him in prison.

In prison, the guards shaved off Ma Mingxin's beard and chained him up. The Jahriyyah decided to use force to free their Imam, who was imprisoned by the Qing with the help of the Khufiyyah. So they armed themselves up and revolted against the government. In 1781, the fights reached their peak, and the Jahriyyah attempted to break down the walls of the prison but failed. Chaos and riots occured in the part of Turkestan which was ruled by the Qing. The government hired the Khufiyyah as part of a military unit to take down the Jahriyyah. Meanwhile, they also hired another group, the Gedimu, to assist the Khufiyyah. The Gedimu were innovators who claimed to be Muslim but practiced Buddhist and Confucian rituals.

Ultimately later that year, the Chinese officials released Ma Mingxin and placed him on top of a tall wall near the prison. When the Jahriyyah saw this, they rushed towards their Imam to free him, as he was still chained. But this did not happen, as the guards beheaded Ma Mingxin out of fear of the approaching Muslim soldiers. After the rebellions had been quelled, the Jahriyyah were exiled to various parts of what is now present-day China. 

Ma Mingxin was buried in his hometown, where the Qing built a pagoda of commemoration over his grave. It was later destroyed, but was rebuilt in modern times. The legacy of Ma Mingxin still lives on, in the form of the Uyghurs, who learn from his teachings. Sadly the Uyghurs are still persecuted by the current Chinese government, may Allah free them from the government's clutches. The Khufiyyah are still active, and the government renovates and polishes their shrine-mausoleums, and those places are even listed as popular tourist destinations.

Source:

Muslim Diversity: Local Islam in Global Contexts by Dru C. Gladney, chapter 5, page 123 (about Ma Mingxin's opposition to saint venerations and Khufiyyah)

Sufism: An Introduction to the Mystical Tradition of Islam by Carl W. Ernst (about the Jahriyyah)

Muslim Chinese: ethnic nationalism in the People's Republic by Gladney (more information about the Jahriyyah)

Al-Kitab Al-Jahri, some translations of it (for general information)

Familiar strangers: a history of Muslims in Northwest China by Lipman (about how Ma Mingxin was executed, and the rebellions)