Starting in the middle of the 19th century, Islamic modernists such as Sir Sayyid Ahmed Khan, Jamal al-din Al-Afghani, and Muhammad Abduh emerged seeking to revitalize Islam by re-establish and reform Islamic law and its interpretations to accommodate Islam with modern society. They emphasized the use of "ijtihad", but in contrast to its original use, they sought to "apply contemporary intellectual methods" such as academic or scientific thought "to the task of reforming Islam". Al-Afghani proposed the new use of "ijtihad" that he believed would enable Muslims to think critically and apply their own individual interpretations of the innovations of modernity in the context of Islam.