Muslim Grandmasters

An indispensable part of the Chinese culture is martial arts. Chinese martial arts, also known as Wu Shu and Kung Fu, include hundreds of fighting styles. Each of them were inspired by different Chinese religions, philosophies, and legends.

The Hui family, which is the Chinese Muslim ethnic group, got inspired by the tradition of Prophet Muhammad (sa) in which he said: “The strong man is not the good wrestler; the strong man is only the one who controls himself when he is angry.” (Bukhari and Muslim)

The Hui members were encouraged to create a fusion between the Islamic belief and the Chinese tradition, the Hui martial arts. Here are two examples of Hui grandmasters.

Ma Xianda

Ma Xianda was born in 1932 and belongs to the sixth generation of a prominent Hui family of martial artists and to a handful masters that has reached the highest level in Chinese martial arts, that is the 9th Duan. He was one of the first and youngest at the time to receive this rank. His father and uncle started to train him at the age of five. Grandmaster Ma learned many traditional Wu Shu styles and studied boxing, Mongolian wrestling (Shuaj Jian) and fencing.

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