152. Karen Armstrongdominate and crush the Muslim world. He could see the dan-
gers of a shallow imitation of Western life, and asked the peo-
ple of the Islamic world to join forces against the European
threat; they must come to the scientific culture of the new
world on their own terms. They must, therefore, cultivate
their own cultural traditions, and that meant Islam. But Islam
itself must respond to the changed conditions and become
more rational and modern. Muslims must rebel against the
long closing of the "gates of ijtihad' and use their own unfet-
tered reason, as both the Prophet and the Koran had insisted.
The Western encroachment had made politics central to
the Islamic experience once more. From the time of the
Prophet Muhammad, Muslims had seen current events as
theophanies; they had encountered a God who was present
in history, and had issued a constant challenge to build a bet-
ter world. Muslims had sought a divine meaning in political
events, and even their setbacks and tragedies had led to
major developments in theology and spirituality. When
Muslims had achieved a type of polity that was more in ac-
cordance with the spirit of the Quran after the decline of the
Abbasid caliphate, they had agonized less about the political
health of the ummah, and felt free to develop a more interior
piety. But the intrusion of the West into their lives raised
major religious questions. The humiliation of the ummah was
not merely a political catastrophe, but touched a Muslim's
very soul. This new weakness was a sign that something had
gone gravely awry in Islamic history. The Quran had
promised that a society which surrendered to God's revealed
will could not fail. Muslim history had proved this. Time and
again, when disaster had struck, the most devout Muslims
had turned to religion, made it speak to their new circum-
stances, and the ummah had not only revived but had usually
gone on to greater achievements. How could Islamdom be
falling more and more under the domination of the secular,