Short answer
No. Li and qi explain how things are formed and ordered, but neither can be the One behind everything. Zhu Xi (Chu Hsi), a later Confucian teacher, taught that every thing has li, its principle, and qi, its material force. He called the li of all things the Supreme Ultimate. He said it will not do to picture a man in heaven judging sins, or to say that nothing rules. What rules, he said, is li itself. Yet he also said li has no intentions, makes no plans, and makes nothing. A principle that makes nothing cannot be what brings the world into being. Islam says who rules: God (﷾), who knows all things and created them. The Qur'an says, "Verily, all things have We created in proportion and measure" (54:49). Chinese Muslim scholars gave this answer in Chinese from the 1600s. Read the Qur'an, and test it.
Full explanation
What Zhu Xi taught about li and qi
Zhu Xi (Chu Hsi, 1130-1200) was the best-known teacher of later Confucianism, often called Neo-Confucianism. He taught that every thing has two sides. Li is its principle: the pattern by which it is what it is, and what it should be. Qi is its material force: the stuff that gathers to form it. J. Percy Bruce, who translated him in 1922, writes "Law" for li and "Ether" for qi. Zhu Xi called the li of heaven, earth and all things the Supreme Ultimate (taiji). If one must put them in order, he said, li comes first. But li is never found alone. Without qi, he asked, "where could Law find its lodgment?"
Zhu Xi says the Supreme Ultimate (taiji) is simply the principle (li) of heaven, earth and all things. Before heaven and earth, there was this principle. Asked whether principle comes before material force (qi), he says they have no real before and after; but if one must trace them back, principle comes first. Yet principle is not a separate thing: it is in material force, and without material force it has nowhere to rest. Material force can gather and form things. Principle has no feelings or intentions, makes no plans, and makes nothing; it is a clean, open world without traces. Material force, he thinks, moves by leaning on principle. He also says the mind of Heaven and Earth cannot be called without awareness, but it does not think things over as people do. He quotes Master Cheng that motion and rest have no starting point: before motion there was rest, and before rest, motion. Asked what came before the present world, he says there must have been another like it. Heaven and earth are not destroyed: when people are utterly without the Way, all falls together into chaos, people and things end, and it begins anew.
“the word "Nature" refers to the Law of the whole universe. This is what is termed "The Supreme Ultimate".”
“Since the Decree of Heaven exists, Ether must also exist, for only thus can there be a receptacle for Law—if there were no Ether where could Law find its lodgment?”
What Zhu Xi said li cannot do
Zhu Xi was careful about what li can do. Qi, he said, can gather and form things. Li has no feelings or intentions, makes no plans, and makes nothing. He called it a clean, open world without traces. He also said the mind of Heaven and Earth is not without awareness. But it does not think things over as people do. On Heaven, he turned down two answers. To picture a man in heaven judging sins will not do. To say that nothing at all rules will not do either. In the same chapter he says that what rules is li itself.
Zhu Xi says the Supreme Ultimate (taiji) is simply the principle (li) of heaven, earth and all things. Before heaven and earth, there was this principle. Asked whether principle comes before material force (qi), he says they have no real before and after; but if one must trace them back, principle comes first. Yet principle is not a separate thing: it is in material force, and without material force it has nowhere to rest. Material force can gather and form things. Principle has no feelings or intentions, makes no plans, and makes nothing; it is a clean, open world without traces. Material force, he thinks, moves by leaning on principle. He also says the mind of Heaven and Earth cannot be called without awareness, but it does not think things over as people do. He quotes Master Cheng that motion and rest have no starting point: before motion there was rest, and before rest, motion. Asked what came before the present world, he says there must have been another like it. Heaven and earth are not destroyed: when people are utterly without the Way, all falls together into chaos, people and things end, and it begins anew.
Zhu Xi says that to speak of a man in heaven judging sins will not do; but to say that nothing at all rules will not do either. In the same chapter he says that what rules is principle itself. Asked about the word Heaven in the classics, he says that it sometimes means the blue sky, sometimes the one who rules, and sometimes principle alone.
The Lord on high in the old books
A student asked whether anyone really gives each person his lot in life. Zhu Xi answered that it simply flows out from the great source. It looks as if someone gives it out, but no one really does. How could there be a person up there handing it out, he asked. Two of the oldest Confucian books, the Odes and the Records (Shijing and Shujing), make it seem there is a person above. They speak, for example, of the anger of the Lord (Di), whom they also call the Lord on high (Shangdi). "But still," Zhu Xi went on, "this Ruler is none other than Law. In the whole universe there is nothing higher than Law and hence the term Ruler." Bruce writes "Law" for li, and "Ruler" for Di. Zhu Xi added that one old line about the Lord on high carries the sense of ruling. So Zhu Xi kept the old name and the sense of ruling, and gave them to li.
Asked whether the unequal lots people receive are really given out by anyone, or only come from the two kinds of material force meeting as they happen to, Zhu Xi says they simply flow out from the great source. It looks that way, but there is not really one who gives them out: how could there be a person up there handing this out? What the Odes and the Records say makes it seem there is a person above, as where they speak of the Lord's anger. But this too is only li. Nothing in the world is more honoured than li, so it is given the name of the Lord (Di). In the line "the great Lord on high sent down the moral sense to the people", the word "sent down" carries the sense of ruling.
“But still, this Ruler is none other than Law. In the whole universe there is nothing higher than Law and hence the term Ruler.”
Zhu Xi says that to speak of a man in heaven judging sins will not do; but to say that nothing at all rules will not do either. In the same chapter he says that what rules is principle itself. Asked about the word Heaven in the classics, he says that it sometimes means the blue sky, sometimes the one who rules, and sometimes principle alone.
A pattern does not make itself
Zhu Xi was right that the world is full of order. But by his own account, li intends nothing, plans nothing and makes nothing. Qi gathers and forms things, but he thought it moves by leaning on li. So neither one chose the order. Zhu Xi also taught that the world falls back into chaos and begins again, and that a world like ours came before it. An endless line of worlds still does not say why there is any world at all. Li is the pattern things follow; it is not what brings them into being. Islam says the order was intended, by the One who made all things. The Qur'an asks, "Were they created of nothing, or were they themselves the creators?" (52:35). It says, "Verily, all things have We created in proportion and measure" (54:49). God (﷾) "hath created, and further, given order and proportion" (87:2).
Zhu Xi says the Supreme Ultimate (taiji) is simply the principle (li) of heaven, earth and all things. Before heaven and earth, there was this principle. Asked whether principle comes before material force (qi), he says they have no real before and after; but if one must trace them back, principle comes first. Yet principle is not a separate thing: it is in material force, and without material force it has nowhere to rest. Material force can gather and form things. Principle has no feelings or intentions, makes no plans, and makes nothing; it is a clean, open world without traces. Material force, he thinks, moves by leaning on principle. He also says the mind of Heaven and Earth cannot be called without awareness, but it does not think things over as people do. He quotes Master Cheng that motion and rest have no starting point: before motion there was rest, and before rest, motion. Asked what came before the present world, he says there must have been another like it. Heaven and earth are not destroyed: when people are utterly without the Way, all falls together into chaos, people and things end, and it begins anew.
“Were they created of nothing, or were they themselves the creators? Or did they create the heavens and the earth? Nay, they have no firm belief.”
“Verily, all things have We created in proportion and measure.”
“Who hath created, and further, given order and proportion; Who hath ordained laws. And granted guidance;”
Not a man in heaven, and not a pattern that makes nothing
Zhu Xi said it will not do to picture a man in heaven judging sins. Islam says God (﷾) is not a man. The Qur'an says of God (﷾), "there is nothing whatever like unto Him". But the same verse goes on: "He is the One that hears and sees (all things)" (42:11). And God (﷾) does judge: He is "Master of the Day of Judgment" (1:4). He is "the First and the Last", and "He has full knowledge of all things" (57:3). Not a leaf falls without His knowledge (6:59). He speaks to people by inspiration, or through messengers (42:51). So the One behind everything is neither a man nor a pattern that makes nothing. He is God, who knows what He makes, and makes it in measure.
Zhu Xi says that to speak of a man in heaven judging sins will not do; but to say that nothing at all rules will not do either. In the same chapter he says that what rules is principle itself. Asked about the word Heaven in the classics, he says that it sometimes means the blue sky, sometimes the one who rules, and sometimes principle alone.
“(He is) the Creator of the heavens and the earth: He has made for you pairs from among yourselves, and pairs among cattle: by this means does He multiply you: there is nothing whatever like unto Him, and He is the One that hears and sees (all things).”
“Master of the Day of Judgment.”
“He is the First and the Last, the Evident and the Immanent: and He has full knowledge of all things.”
“With Him are the keys of the unseen, the treasures that none knoweth but He. He knoweth whatever there is on the earth and in the sea. Not a leaf doth fall but with His knowledge: there is not a grain in the darkness (or depths) of the earth, nor anything fresh or dry (green or withered), but is (inscribed) in a record clear (to those who can read).”
“It is not fitting for a man that Allah should speak to him except by inspiration, or from behind a veil, or by the sending of a messenger to reveal, with Allah's permission, what Allah wills: for He is Most High, Most Wise.”
Chinese Muslim scholars who wrote in Chinese
From the 1600s, Chinese Muslim scholars wrote books on Islam in Chinese. Many Chinese Muslims call these books the Han Kitab. Wang Daiyu published the earliest that survives in 1642, and Ma Zhu and Liu Zhi followed. Ma Zhu spent over ten years studying the languages and books of Islam. Liu Zhi spent six years on its Arabic and Persian books. The historian Jonathan Lipman writes that Wang used the terms of Zhu Xi's school, the learned Chinese of his day. He used them to criticise some of its basic ideas and to defend Islam. Half of Wang's forty essays are on Islam's rituals and laws. Ma Zhu's book is a guide to Islamic belief and practice, and Liu Zhi wrote on the five pillars of Islam. Muslims explain Islam in their readers' own language, as this page does in English.
Lipman describes the Han Kitab, the Chinese-language books on Islam by Chinese Muslim scholars; A passage Lipman quotes says Chinese Muslims call them by this name (p. 72); Lipman adds that the name is used in the northwest, while elsewhere a Chinese title is used (ch. 3, n. 38). Wang Daiyu of Nanjing published the Zhengjiao zhenquan in 1642, the earliest such work that survives (p. 75). In his preface Wang says the book rests entirely on reverence for Scripture, with reference to the commentaries (pp. 76-77). Lipman says Wang held to the basic truths of Islam, but wrote in the vocabulary of the Neo-Confucian school of the Cheng brothers and Zhu Xi; his first chapters are on the unity of God and on creation (p. 77). His book has twenty short essays on philosophy and religion and twenty on ritual and laws, and it argues for Islamic belief and practice (pp. 77-78). Wang used that whole philosophical language to criticise some of its basic ideas and to defend Islam (p. 79). Ma Zhu spent over a decade studying the languages and texts of Islam, and wrote the Qingzhen zhinan (Compass of Islam), a guide to Islamic thought and practice (p. 80). Liu Zhi, the most famous of these writers, studied the Arabic and Persian curricula for six years after his Confucian schooling (p. 81), and wrote a treatise on the five pillars of Islam (p. 83).
Ma Zhu: the True Lord before the Supreme Ultimate
Ma Zhu, a Chinese Muslim scholar, put Islam's answer in Chinese. He wrote that before the Supreme Ultimate began, there was only the One True Lord (Zhenzhu). He has no equal and no partner, no beginning and no end. His seeing does not rely on eyes, His hearing on ears, or His speech on a tongue. He was not begotten, and He begets none. He held the forms and principles of all things from the beginning. Ma Zhu compared this to the plan of an essay in a writer's mind before he takes up the brush. For the True Lord, he adds, there is no before and after. Ma Zhu used the old word Supreme Ultimate in his own way. For him it was not Zhu Xi's li of all things. It was a made thing: the root of all things without awareness, which the True Lord brought into being.
In the first of his eight praises of God, "The One", Ma Zhu writes that before the Supreme Ultimate (taiji) began, there was only the One True Lord (Zhenzhu). He has no equal and no partner, no beginning and no end. His seeing does not rely on eyes, yet He sees all; His hearing does not rely on ears, and His speech does not rely on a tongue. He was not begotten, and He begets none. He made heaven and earth and sustains all living things. He held the forms of all things before heaven, as a writer holds the plan of an essay in his mind before he takes up the brush. And as every written character has its meaning, every thing has its principle (li); He held all the principles from the beginning. For the True Lord, Ma Zhu adds, there is in truth no before and after. In the praise "Great power", Ma Zhu writes that the True Lord brought into being the root of all things that have no awareness, and that this is called the Supreme Ultimate. In his use, then, the Supreme Ultimate is a made thing, not Zhu Xi's principle of all things.
“Say: He is Allah, the One and Only; Allah, the Eternal, Absolute; He begetteth not, nor is He begotten; And there is none like unto Him.”
“(He is) the Creator of the heavens and the earth: He has made for you pairs from among yourselves, and pairs among cattle: by this means does He multiply you: there is nothing whatever like unto Him, and He is the One that hears and sees (all things).”
What Islam asks of the reader
Islam is more than an answer about where things come from. It is a complete way of life (deen), with belief, worship, law, family and character together. God (﷾) says He has perfected this way of life (5:3). He calls believers to enter Islam whole-heartedly (2:208). The page "What is Islam?" shows it whole. The Qur'an claims to be the word of the One who made all things in measure, and it invites a test (2:23). Muhammad (ﷺ) is the Seal of the Prophets, the last of them, sent to all people (33:40; 7:158). Read the Qur'an, test it, and ask whether he is the last messenger God (﷾) sent.
“This day have I perfected your religion for you, completed My favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion.”
“O ye who believe! Enter into Islam whole-heartedly; and follow not the footsteps of the evil one; for he is to you an avowed enemy.”
“And if ye are in doubt as to what We have revealed from time to time to Our servant, then produce a Sura like thereunto; and call your witnesses or helpers (If there are any) besides Allah, if your (doubts) are true.”
“Muhammad is not the father of any of your men, but (he is) the Messenger of Allah, and the Seal of the Prophets: and Allah has full knowledge of all things.”
“Say: "O men! I am sent unto you all, as the Messenger of Allah, to Whom belongeth the dominion of the heavens and the earth: there is no god but He: it is He That giveth both life and death. So believe in Allah and His Messenger, the Unlettered Prophet, who believeth in Allah and His words: follow him that (so) ye may be guided."”
Reply by reply
J. Percy Bruce (tr.), The Philosophy of Human Nature by Chu Hsi, 1922, Book II, The Decree, section 19 — p. 147
“But still, this Ruler is none other than Law. In the whole universe there is nothing higher than Law and hence the term Ruler.”
Cited for
Zhu Xi said, "this Ruler is none other than Law." So the ruler of all things is li, a principle, and not a God who acts.
The response
Zhu Xi said the Lord on high of the old books is li, because nothing is higher. He also said it will not do to claim that nothing rules. Yet by his own account, li has no intentions, makes no plans and makes nothing. A ruler that decides nothing and makes nothing does not rule as a ruler does. Zhu Xi even said no one really gives each person his lot. The Qur'an says who rules and measures out each thing: God (﷾), who "created all things, and ordered them in due proportions" (25:2).
Where it lands — Zhu Xi kept the old name of the Lord on high, but gave it to li, which makes nothing. Islam says the Ruler is God, who creates, knows and measures out each thing.
Classified Conversations of Master Zhu (Zhuzi yulei), chapter 1, on li and qi
Zhu Xi says the Supreme Ultimate (taiji) is simply the principle (li) of heaven, earth and all things. Before heaven and earth, there was this principle. Asked whether principle comes before material force (qi), he says they have no real before and after; but if one must trace them back, principle comes first. Yet principle is not a separate thing: it is in material force, and without material force it has nowhere to rest. Material force can gather and form things. Principle has no feelings or intentions, makes no plans, and makes nothing; it is a clean, open world without traces. Material force, he thinks, moves by leaning on principle. He also says the mind of Heaven and Earth cannot be called without awareness, but it does not think things over as people do. He quotes Master Cheng that motion and rest have no starting point: before motion there was rest, and before rest, motion. Asked what came before the present world, he says there must have been another like it. Heaven and earth are not destroyed: when people are utterly without the Way, all falls together into chaos, people and things end, and it begins anew.
Cited for
Li was there before heaven and earth. It is eternal, so it needs no maker, and neither does the world.
The response
Zhu Xi did say that, if one must trace them back, li comes first. But he said li has nowhere to rest without qi, and that it makes nothing. He also taught that the world falls into chaos and begins again. An endless line of worlds still does not explain why there is any world at all. The Qur'an asks, "Were they created of nothing, or were they themselves the creators?" (52:35). The One without a beginning is God, "the First and the Last" (57:3). The page "If everything needs a creator, who created God?" explains why the chain of causes must end in One who depends on nothing.
Where it lands — Neither an eternal pattern that makes nothing nor an endless line of worlds explains why there is a world. The One without a beginning is God, who knows and creates.
Perspectives
What Zhu Xi taught
Zhu Xi taught that every thing has li (principle) and qi (material force). He called the li of all things the Supreme Ultimate, and said that what rules is li itself.
Zhu Xi called the li of heaven, earth and all things the Supreme Ultimate (taiji). He said li cannot be found apart from qi.
Zhu Xi said that li has no feelings or intentions, makes no plans, and makes nothing. It is qi that gathers and forms things.
Zhu Xi said it will not do to picture a man in heaven judging sins, nor to say that nothing rules. He said that what rules is li itself.
Asked whether anyone really gives people their unequal lots, Zhu Xi said no one really does. The old books only make it seem there is a person above, and the Lord on high they speak of is li.
A Confucian reader: li and qi are enough
A Confucian reader may say that li and qi explain the world, with no Creator needed. Some add that the Supreme Ultimate is God by another name, or that the Chinese Muslim scholars made Islam Confucian.
Zhu Xi taught that li was there before heaven and earth, and that another world came before this one. Li is eternal and needs no maker.
Rebuttal
Grant that li has no beginning. Zhu Xi said li has nowhere to rest without qi, so it does not stand on its own. And li makes nothing, so it cannot explain why qi, or any world, exists. An endless line of worlds does not explain it either. Only One who depends on nothing explains it: God (﷾), "the Eternal, Absolute" (112:2).
Li is not a maker. It is the reason why each thing is as it is. To ask for a maker misreads Zhu Xi.
Rebuttal
The Qur'an says each thing was created in measure (54:49). But why a thing is as it is, is not why it exists. Zhu Xi said li makes nothing, so li cannot say why there is anything at all. The Qur'an asks, "Were they created of nothing, or were they themselves the creators?" (52:35).
Zhu Xi said that what rules is li itself: "this Ruler is none other than Law". Nothing more is needed.
Rebuttal
Zhu Xi called li the Ruler because nothing is higher. But a ruler commands, and li, he said, has no intentions and makes no plans. He also said no one really gives each person his lot. Islam says God (﷾) does: He created all things in proportion and measure (54:49).
Qi gathers and scatters by itself, and that explains the world. No ruler is needed.
Rebuttal
Zhu Xi himself said it will not do to say that nothing rules. Qi keeps the same order everywhere and in every season. If that order is simply qi's own nature, who gave qi that nature? The Qur'an points to that order, with no want of proportion, as its Maker's work (67:3).
The Supreme Ultimate is simply God by another name, so Confucians already know God.
Rebuttal
Zhu Xi said the Supreme Ultimate is simply the li of all things, and that li makes nothing. The God (﷾) of the Qur'an hears and sees (42:11) and speaks through messengers (42:51). They are not the same.
The Chinese Muslim scholars wrote in Neo-Confucian terms, so they made Islam Confucian.
Rebuttal
They wrote in the learned Chinese of their day, to explain Islam, as Muslims today explain it in English or Malay. Wang Daiyu used those terms to criticise some basic Neo-Confucian ideas and to defend Islam. And Islam is known from the Qur'an and the Prophet's (ﷺ) teaching, not from any later writer. The Qur'an invites the test (2:23).
The Chinese Muslim scholars
From the 1600s, Chinese Muslim scholars explained Islam in Chinese. Ma Zhu wrote that the One True Lord was before the Supreme Ultimate, and brought it into being. In his own use, the Supreme Ultimate meant the made root of things.
Wang Daiyu published the Zhengjiao zhenquan in 1642, the earliest Chinese book on Islam that survives. Ma Zhu and Liu Zhi followed.
Ma Zhu wrote that before the Supreme Ultimate there was only the One True Lord, with no equal and no partner. He used the old word in his own way, for the made root of all things without awareness. He wrote that the True Lord brought it into being.
The Islamic perspective
Li and qi describe how things are ordered and formed. But a pattern that makes nothing is not the One behind everything. God (﷾) created all things in measure and knows all things. He is like nothing else, yet hears and sees.
God (﷾) created all things and ordered them in due proportions, in measure.
Nothing is like God (﷾), yet He hears and sees. He is the First and the Last, He has full knowledge of all things, and He is Master of the Day of Judgment.
God (﷾) begets not and is not begotten, and there is none like Him.
God (﷾) speaks to people by inspiration, from behind a veil, or by sending a messenger. The Qur'an claims to be His word and invites a test.
Islam is a complete way of life. Muhammad (ﷺ), the Seal of the Prophets, was sent to all people.