Al-Afghani's ideology has been described as a welding of "traditional" religious antipathy toward non-Muslims "to a modern critique of Western
imperialism and an appeal for the unity of Islam", urging the adoption of Western sciences and institutions that might strengthen Islam. Al-Afghani's friend, the British poet, and Arabophile
Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, considered him a liberal, and in some of his writings he equates the parliamentary system to the
shura (consultation) system mentioned in the Qur'an. However, his attitude to the constitutional government was ambiguous because he doubted that it was viable in the Islamic world. According to his biographer, he envisioned instead "the overthrow of individual rulers who were lax or subservient to foreigners and their replacement by strong and patriotic men." Blunt,
Jane Digby and
Richard Francis Burton, were close with
Emir Abdelkader (1808–1883), an Algerian Islamic scholar, Sufi, and military leader. In 1864, the Lodge "Henry IV" extended an invitation to him to join Freemasonry, which he accepted, being initiated at the Lodge of the Pyramids in Alexandria, Egypt. Blunt had supposedly become a
convert to Islam under the influence of al-Afghani and shared his hopes of establishing an Arab Caliphate based in Mecca to replace the Ottoman Sultan in Istanbul. When Blunt visited Abdelkader in 1881, he decided that he was the most promising candidate for caliph, an opinion shared by Afghani and his disciple, Muhammad Abduh. According to another source Al-Afghani was greatly disappointed by the failure of the
Indian Rebellion of 1857 and came to three principal conclusions from it: • that European imperialism, having conquered India, now threatened the Middle East. • that Asia, including the Middle East, could prevent the onslaught of Western powers only by immediately adopting modern technology like the West. • that Islam, despite its traditionalism, was an effective creed for mobilizing the public against the imperialists. Al-Afghani held that
Hindus and Muslims should work together to overthrow British rule in India, a view rehashed by
Hussain Ahmad Madani in
Composite Nationalism and Islam five decades later. He believed that Islam and its revealed law were compatible with rationality and, thus, Muslims could become politically unified while still maintaining their faith based on religious social morality. These beliefs had a profound effect on Muhammad Abduh, who went on to expand on the notion of
Mu'amalat, using rationality in the human relations aspect of Islam. In 1881 he published a collection of polemics titled
Al-Radd ʻalā al-dahrīyīn "Refutation of the Materialists", agitating for pan-Islamic unity against Western imperialism. It included one of the earliest pieces of Islamic thought arguing against
Charles Darwin's then-recent
On the Origin of Species; however, his arguments allegedly incorrectly caricatured
evolutionary biology, provoking criticism that he had not read Darwin's writings. In his later work
Khatirat Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani "The memoir of Al-Afghani", he accepted the validity of evolution, asserting that the Islamic world had already known and used it. Although he accepted
abiogenesis and the evolution of animals, he rejected the theory that the human species is the product of evolution, arguing that humans have
souls. was his lack of interest in finding theological common ground between the Shia and the Sunni despite his interest in political unity between the two groups. For example, when he moved to Istanbul he disguised his Twelver Shi'i background by labeling himself "the Afghan". ==Death and legacy==