[4] Following the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, Ma was sent by the Chinese government to Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, to cultivate relations with Arab nations.

Whilst in Cairo, he would also subsequently translate several of Muhammad Abduh's works into Chinese, with the assistance of Rashid Rida,[8] as well as Husayn al-Jisr's The Truth of Islam.

He also became a professor of Arabic and Islamic studies at Peking University in 1946, a role in which he oversaw the introduction of the first Arabic-language courses in the Chinese higher education system.

[14] In 1952, another edition of his Qur'an translation was published by Shanghai's Commercial Press,[15] and Ma became one of the founders of the Islamic Association of China.

[18] Due to his linguistic skills, he served as a high-level interpreter for Chinese officials such as Zhou Enlai, whom he enabled to speak to Gamal Abdel Nasser at the Bandung Conference.

[25] The quality of this translation has also been recognized internationally - with the Medina-based King Fahd Holy Qur'an Printing Press opting to use it for their Arabic-Chinese bilingual edition of the Quran, published in 1987.