Page 66 - Magnificence Everywhere
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THE SCORPION FISH'S CAMOUFLAGE
Have a look at the scorpion fish in the picture. You will notice right away how
difficult it is for the eye to visually discriminate them from their surroundings.
Scorpion fish live mainly on the sea floor in temperate or tropical zones and
never venture out into the open sea. They are carnivorous and feed on smaller fish.
Their long, fan-shaped fins are an excellent deterrent to the fish's enemies, and its
red-and-white stripes make it difficult for their prey to see them among the corals.
The scorpion fish has a very colorful appearance. But since the corals it lives in are
also very colorful, it easily hides among them. It decreases its chances of being a
prey. It also allows it to get close to its own prey easily. 18
It is very difficult to distinguish most undersea creatures, like scorpion fish,
from the environment in which they live. The presence of these creatures becomes
clear only when they move. These creatures which camouflage themselves under
the sea in a perfect way also use their colors to hunt, reproduce and send messages.
How, then, did this harmony originate? Who has made the body of a fish the same
color as the rock where it lives and even given it the same protuberant appearance
as the rock? And who has given a shrimp the colors of sea plants? It is impossible
for any chemical processes occurring by chance or any other factor to give these
creatures the color of the environment they live in.
It is also impossible for a fish, shrimp or crab to be aware of the concept of color
and to produce systems that make color changes in themselves. Such a thought can-
not go beyond mere imagination. Designing such a system, placing this system into
creatures, making arrangements in genes to make it possible to transfer it from gen-
eration to generation, and coding all the information in the cells of creatures can be
done only by the owner of a superior power.
The Owner of this superior power is Allah. Allah created all creatures together
with the traits they possess. Allah draws our attention to this fact in the following
verse:
Magnificence Everywhere the All-Aware. It is He who made the earth submissive to you, so walk
Does He not know those whom He created? He is the All-Pervading,
its broad trails and eat what it provides. The Resurrection is to Him.
(Surat al-Mulk: 14-15)
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