Page 12 - Allah's Artistry in Colour

10 Allah's Artistry In Colour

ave you ever thought what it would be like to live in a world
without colour? Free yourself for a moment from your experi-
H ence, forget all that you've learned and start using your imagi-
nation. 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, but-
terflies, 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 state-
ments 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 strawber-
ries 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