Allah's Artistry In Colour
A Colorful World
Introduction
Have you ever thought what it would be like to live in a world without color? Free yourself for a moment from your experience, forget all that you've learned and start using your imagination. Try to visualize your body, the people around you, the seas, the sky, trees, flowers, in short everything in black. Imagine that there is no color around you. Try to think how you would feel if people, cats, dogs, birds, butterflies, and fruits had no color at all. You would never want to live in such a world, would you?
Most people may never have thought about what a colorful world they are living in or wondered how such a diversity of color has come to exist on earth. They may never have given a thought to how a world without color would be. This is because everyone who sees was born into a world full of color. However, a model of a black and white, colorless world is not impossible. On the contrary, the really amazing thing is our living in a bright, colorful world. (In the following chapters, we will discuss in detail why the existence of a colorful world is so amazing).
A colorless world would normally be thought of as having only black, white and shades of grey. However, black, white and shades of grey are also colors. In this respect, it is difficult to imagine colorlessness. To describe colorlessness, one always feels the need to mention a color. With statements such as "it was colorless, completely dark", "there was no color in her face; it was completely white" people try to describe colorlessness. In fact, these are not the descriptions of colorlessness, but of a world of black and white.
Try, just for a second, to imagine that all of a sudden, everything loses its color. In such a situation, everything would mix with everything else and it would become impossible to distinguish one object from another. It would become impossible to see, for example, an orange, red strawberries or colorful flowers on a brown wooden table, for neither would the color of the orange be orange, nor that of the table brown, nor that of the strawberries red. For a person, it would be quite annoying to live, even for a short time, in such a colorless world, which is even difficult to describe.
Color has a crucial role in man's communication with the outside world, in the proper functioning of his memory, and in his brain's fulfillment of its learning functions. This is because humans can develop appropriate connections between events and places, people and objects only through their external appearances and colors. Neither hearing nor touch alone suffices to define objects. For humans, the external world only means something when it is seen as a whole with its colors.
WE ALWAYS SEE A WORLD FULL OF COLOR
When the pictures above and on the right are compared, it will be better understood how nice it is to see a world full of color. Colors are one of the greatest blessings that Allah has bestowed upon people in the world.
Identifying objects and our surroundings are not the only benefits from the diversity of colors. The perfect harmony of color in nature gives the human soul great pleasure. In order to see this harmony and derive pleasure from every detail of it, man has been equipped with a pair of eyes, which have a very special design. In the world of animate beings, human eyes are the most functional and can perceive colors in their smallest details, so much so that the human eye is sensitive to millions of colors. Evidently, the visual apparatus in humans that works so perfectly has been specially designed to see a world full of color.
The only being on earth that can understand the existence of such an order in the universe is man because he has the power to reflect and reason. Hence, in the light of all the foregoing, we conclude the following:
Every detail, pattern and color in the heavens and the earth have been created for humans to acknowledge and so to appreciate this order and reflect on it. The colors in nature have been arranged in such a manner as to appeal to the human soul. Perfect symmetry and harmony prevail within color, both in the worlds of animate and inanimate beings. This situation will certainly evoke some questions in the mind of someone who reflects, such as:
What makes the earth colorful? How do the colors, which make our world so extraordinarily beautiful, come into being? To whom belong the design of the diverse colors and the harmony between them?
Is it possible to say that whatever exists might have come into existence by purposeless changes brought about by a chain of coincidence?
Certainly, no one would claim such an absurdity. Uncontrolled coincidences cannot create anything, let alone billions of colors. Just observe the wings of a butterfly or colorful flowers of any kind, each of which looks like a wonder of art. It is surely impossible for sound reason to attribute all these to unconscious processes.
We can have a better understanding of this fact if we take an example. When one sees a painting depicting trees and flowers in nature, one would not claim nor even think that the harmony of color, the organized patterns and the conscious design in this painting could have come into existence by coincidence. If someone came along and said, "The paint boxes were overturned by the wind, mixed, and with the effect of rain etc., and after a long period of time this beautiful painting was formed", it is certain that nobody would take him seriously. There is a very interesting situation here. Although nobody would attempt to put forward such an unreasonable claim, some people can nevertheless claim that the perfect coloring and symmetry of nature came about by such an unconscious process. Nevertheless, evolutionists produce theses that it is the workings of coincidence to explain this subject and they produce various researches. They do not hesitate to put forward baseless claims on the issue.
This is obvious blindness, with which it is difficult to come to terms. Still, someone who escapes from this blindness through exercizing his faculty of thought will understand that he actually lives in an extremely miraculous environment on the earth. He would also fully acknowledge that such an environment furnished with the most appropriate conditions for the survival of humankind could not have come into existenceby chance.
Just as a man who reflects, acknowledges the moment he looks at a painting that it has a painter, so will he understand that the multi-colored, harmonious and extremely picturesque environment around him also has a Creator.
This Creator is Allah, Who has no partner in creation, who creates everything in full harmony, and Who placed us in this world overflowing with numerous beautiful things embellished with millions of colors. All the things Allah creates are in perfect harmony with each other. Allah describes the uniqueness of His artistry in creation in the Qur'an as follows:
He has created the seven heavens in layers. You will not find any flaw in the creation of the All-Merciful. Look again-do you see any gaps? Then look again and again. Your sight will return to you dazzled and exhausted! (Surat al-Mulk: 3-4)
