Introduction
A Colourful World
 Have
you ever thought what it would be like to live in a world without colour?
Free yourself for a moment from your experience, forget all that you've
learned and start using your imagination. Try to visualise your body,
the people around you, the seas, the sky, trees, flowers, in short everything
in black. Imagine that there is no colour around you. Try to think how
you would feel if people, cats, dogs, birds, butterflies, and fruits had
no colour at all. You would never want to live in such a world, would
you?
Most people may never have thought about what a colourful world they
are living in or wondered how such a diversity of colour has come to exist
on earth. They may never have given a thought to how a world without colour
would be. This is because everyone who sees was born into a world full
of colour. However, a model of a black and white, colourless world is
not impossible. On the contrary, the really amazing thing is our living
in a bright, colourful world. (In the following chapters, we will discuss
in detail why the existence of a colourful world is so amazing)
A colourless world would normally be thought of as having only black,
white and shades of grey. However, black, white and shades of grey are
also colours. In this respect, it is difficult to imagine colourlessness.
To describe colourlessness, one always feels the need to mention a colour.
With statements such as "it was colourless, completely dark", "there was
no colour in her face; it was completely white" people try to describe
colourlessness. In fact, these are not the descriptions of colourlessness,
but of a world of black and white.
Try, just for a second, to imagine that all of a sudden, everything loses
its colour. 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 colourful flowers on a brown wooden table, for neither would the colour
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 colourless world, which is even difficult
to describe.
Colour has a crucial role in man's communication with the outside world,
in the proper functioning of his memory, and in his brain's fulfilment
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 colours. Neither hearing nor touch alone
suffice to define objects. For humans, the external world only means something
when it is seen as a whole with its colours.
Identifying objects and our surroundings are not the
only benefits from the diversity of colours. The perfect harmony of colour
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 colours in
their smallest details, so much so that the human eye is sensitive to
millions of colours.1 Evidently, the visual apparatus
in humans that works so perfectly has been specially designed to see a
world full of colour.
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 colour in the heavens and the earth have been
created for humans to acknowledge and so to appreciate this order and
reflect on it. The colours in nature have been arranged in such a manner
as to appeal to the human soul. Perfect symmetry and harmony prevail within
colour, 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 colourful? How do the colours, which make our world
so extraordinarily beautiful, come into being? To whom belong the design
of the diverse colours 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 colours. Just observe the
wings of a butterfly or colourful 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 colour, the organised 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 colouring 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 exercising 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 existence by 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-coloured,
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 colours. 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 Who 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)
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