Temporal Changes

defeated politically by the sword, their dominance would have come to an end. However, the dominance of the Western powers in the modern age was much more deeply entrenched than this. Thus, the future of Western dominance could not be estimated simply on the battlefield. The true secret behind the dominance of the Western powers was that they had transformed the human mindset. The intellectual revolution they had brought about compelled the entire world to think in the same way they did, to hold opinions of things just like they do. This major transformation led to a shift in the arena of confrontation between the Western powers and the people they came to dominate, from the battlefield to the field of thought. To successfully meet the challenge of the Western nations, it was now necessary to counter them in the realm of ideas. To find a place in the modern world, it was necessary, once again, to transform the structures of human thought. However, because the Ulama became deeply involved in political conflicts, they failed to understand these imperatives, and they also failed to take the appropriate action on this score.