I have started a new book by Sachiko Murata called Chinese Gleams of Sufi Light: Wang Tai-yu’s Great Learning of the Pure and Real and Liu Chih’s Displaying the Concealment of the Real Realm.
Yeah, that’s a mouthful. It’s actually two books translated. It also includes Lawa’ih, translated by William Chittick and juxtaposed with the Chinese translation.
Dr. Murata offers plenty of commentary to explain why and how she accomplished the book. Her earlier work, The Tao of Islam, was an attempt to explain Islam through the eyes of someone with a background in eastern philosophy and religion. Interestingly, she was unaware at the time that Chinese ulama had attempted the same thing (and, according to her, much more brilliantly), the earliest of which was Wang Tai-yu’s “Great Learning.”
As the early Muslims of China gradually integrated into Chinese society (and their primary language evolved from Persian to Chinese, it became necessary (in fact crucial) that the general populace was able to approach Islam in the Chinese language and also through the lens of Neo-Confucian understanding.
This required the ulama to not only translate the words but also translate the meaning into Chinese idioms and philosophy. It proved not only that Islam was versatile enough to be translated into any language and culture but more specifically that even eastern philosophy/religion, which is not especially concerned with the specific concept of a deity, was reasonably compatible with Islamic theology. Thus, the Principle of Confucianism was adequate in explaining the concept of tawhid and ultimately the attributes and transcendence of the Divine Presence (Allah, Most High).
I’ve barely started the book, so I’ll post more information when I finish it, inshaAllah.
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