Chapter 2 - Design In Colours

Colour is a concept that helps us to identify the properties of objects and define them more precisely. Thinking about the colours of the objects around us, we simply come to notice what a variety of detailed colours we are surrounded by. Everything, animate or inanimate, has a colour. Living creatures of the same species have the same particular colours everywhere in the world. No matter where you go, the colour of the flesh of the water-melon is always red, kiwis are always green, seas are always shades of blue and green, snow is white, lemons are yellow, the colour of elephants is the same in any part of the world as also the colours of trees. They never change. This goes for artificially produced colours as well. Wherever you go on the earth, if you mix red with yellow, you will get orange or if you mix black and white you will get grey. The result is always the same.

At this point, it may be useful to think somewhat differently. First, let us think by asking the question of how the colours of objects are made. We can explain this by an example. Imagine that you walk into a store and see fabric of different designs and models, the colours of which are extremely harmonious with each other. Surely, those fabrics did not come there by chance; conscious people drafted their designs, determined their colours, subjected them to a number of dying processes, and after putting them through many other intermediate stages, they displayed them in that store. In short, the existence of these fabrics depends on the people who designed and manufactured them. When you see them, you do not say that they came there by chance, or that their designs were formed by coincidence as a result of paints spilt over the fabrics. In fact, no man of reason would make such a claim. Indeed, there is a conscious Will that presents us the views we see in nature all the time, the butterflies, flowers, multi-coloured places under the sea, trees, and clouds etc., just in the way these fabrics are presented to us. The diversity in the universe is the consequence of a special design. This design is manifested in every stage from the formation of light to its becoming a colourful image in our brain. This is one of the greatest evidences of the existence of an Owner, that is, a Designer of the design in colours. Surely, Allah, Who possesses an infinitely superior wisdom and power of creation, creates all the colours and designs in the universe that man admires.

The stages of colour formation were briefly listed earlier. In this chapter, the superior design evident in colour will be examined under separate headings in accordance with the progression from light to eye and brain.

No one would claim that the fabric seen in the picture came there by coincidence, and has no designer. Similarly, it cannot be claimed that rainbows, butterflies, flowers, sea creatures, and clouds, in short, everything on earth has no designer. The designs of the colours and forms of all these things belong to Allah, Who creates without any preceding example.

1. LIght, LIfe and Colour

The sun is only one of the billions of medium size stars in the universe. What makes the sun the most important star of the universe for us is its size, its relationship to the planets moving around it and the particular rays it emits. If just one of these characteristics of the sun were different from current values, there would be no life on earth. Indeed, the sun has the ideal values for life to originate and be maintained on earth.1This is why scientists describe the sun as the "source of life" on earth.3

Sunlight is the only source of heat, heating the earth in the most appropriate way, and light, helping plants with their photosynthesis. It is well known that heat and photosynthesis are essential for life. In addition, the existence of daylight and a colourful world depend on the rays emitted from the sun. In this case, the question of how these rays, the ultimate energy source for the earth, come into existence comes to mind. Surely, that these rays, which are the key to life on earth, serve such important purposes and, at the same time, have all the necessary characteristics for this, cannot be attributed to coincidence. The reason for this will be better understood when the structure of light is examined.

The wavelengths of the rays coming from space may be of very different types, ranging from radio waves, which have the longest wavelengths, to gamma rays, which have extremely short wavelengths.

All the conditions essential for the existence of life on earth, directly or indirectly, depend on light coming from the sun. In the structure of sunrays, on the other hand, there is a design dependent on very delicate balances.

The energy emitted by the stars moves in waves through the void of space. Similarly, both light and heat are emitted by the sun, which is a star, as energy in the form of waves. The movement of this energy the stars emit can be compared to that of the waves caused by a stone thrown into a lake. Just as the waves in the lake have different lengths, so do heat and light have different wavelengths as they diffuse.

At this point, it would be useful to give some information about the different wavelengths of light in the universe. The stars and other light sources in the universe do not emit the same kinds of light. These different rays are classified according to their wavelengths and frequencies. These different wavelengths are spread over vast areas. For example, the shortest wavelength is 10²⁵ times smaller than the longest wavelength (10²⁵ is a very big number consisting of number 1 followed by 25 zeros)4

In the whole spectrum, the total rays emitted by the sun are squeezed into a very short interval. 70% of the different wavelengths the sun emits lie within a narrow interval ranging from 0.3 micron to 1.50 micron. (A micron is 10-6 m) Examining why sunrays are restricted to such a narrow interval, we come to an interesting conclusion: the rays that make life, and colour, possible on earth are only those present in this interval.

The arrangement within light astonishes scientists. Although too many rays come from space, sunrays, as seen in the schema above, are restricted to a very narrow interval. This is precisely the interval that is needed for life.

British physicist Ian Campbell, who defines this superior design as "incredibly astonishing" in his book "The Energy and the Atmosphere", draws attention to this point:

That the radiation from the sun (and from many sequence stars) should be concentrated into a minuscule band of the electromagnetic spectrum, which provides precisely the radiation required to maintain life on earth, is very coincidence.5

The greater part of this small range of radiation emitted by the sun from the electromagnetic spectrum, a spectrum having a width where the longest wavelength is 10²⁵ times large than the shortest, is named "visible light". The rays that lie below and above this interval, on the other hand, reach the earth as infrared and ultraviolet rays. Let us now briefly examine the properties of these two kinds of rays.

Infrared rays reach the earth in the form of heat waves. Ultraviolet rays that contain higher energy, on the other hand, may have a damaging effect on living beings. Infrared rays pass through the atmosphere, and provide heat, which makes the earth a place suitable for life. Ultraviolet rays, on the other hand, can reach the earth only at a certain rate. If this rate were a little higher than its current level, it would harm the tissues of living beings and cause mass deaths, while if it were a little lower, then the energy needed for living beings would not be provided.

These points are details crucial for life. As understood from the functions and uses of the rays emitted by the sun, there is order and control in every existing system in the world. Surely, it is impossible for such a system, the delicate balances of which we briefly dwelled upon, to have been formed by coincidence.

Examining another element of this flawless system, we once again see the impossibility of its coming into existence as a consequence of coincidence.

The atmosphere lets only necessary rays reach the earth while reflecting other harmful rays back into space.

2. The shIeld protectIng the earth: The Atmosphere

In previous pages, we mentioned that some of the sunrays are harmful for life on earth. In order to avert this harmful effect, a solution is needed.

Let us put our heads together and find a solution to this problem by developing an efficient system to filter sunrays. We should also take cognisance of the fact that this system should be a multifunctional one, which will protect the world from the harmful effects of the sun, ensuring that this is maintained permanently, not requiring maintenance, and also capable of preventing some other possible threats to the earth. Certainly, in such a situation, several alternative solutions will surface. Yet, nothing put forward will be as efficient and versatile as the present filter that now covers the earth: the atmosphere. The atmosphere of the earth is one hundred percent successful at filtering harmful rays and Allah specially designed it in order to protect the world.

By means of specific layers of the atmosphere, sunrays reach earth only in required amounts because the atmosphere processes the sunrays specifically according to their wavelengths. Our atmosphere is like a giant refining plant designed for filtering these rays. This gigantic refining system that has no equal on the earth has been carrying out these processes because of its special design. Allah draws attention to the creation of the skies as follows, (the Arabic word for 'heaven - sama' is also the word for 'sky'):

The creation of the heavens and earth is far greater than the creation of mankind. But most of mankind do not know it. (Surah Ghafir: 57)

The rays coming from the sun are quite specific. It is necessary for them to possess properties enabling them to pass through the atmosphere and reach the earth. Similarly, the atmosphere, too, has to have a special structure to allow these rays to pass through. Otherwise, neither the existence of the atmosphere nor the structural appropriateness of the rays will be of any use. Because of the ray-permeable nature of the atmosphere, the rays coming from the sun easily reach the earth. There is another important point that needs mention. Whilst letting only visible light and the near infrared rays required for life pass through, the atmosphere prevents all other destructive rays from reaching earth. The atmosphere of the earth serves as a very important "filter" for the destructive rays coming from the sun or from non-sun sources, that is, from other zones in space.6

Michael Denton, a renowned astronomer, states this as follows:

Even the atmospheric gases themselves absorb electromagnetic radiation very strongly in those regions of the spectrum immediately on either side of the visible and near infrared. Note that the only region of the spectrum allowed to pass through the atmosphere over the entire range of electromagnetic radiation from radio to gamma rays is the exceedingly narrow band including the visible and near infrared. Virtually no gamma, X, ultraviolet, far-infrared, and microwave radiation reaches the surface of the earth.7

The material densities, that is, the densities of atoms in space and of the atmosphere are different from each other. For this reason, when light enters the atmosphere, it spreads out more and becomes diffuse because it hits more atoms. The eyes of living beings can see a colourful world only by perceiving these rays that come after being diffused, or in other words, weakened by the atmosphere. In outer space environment where there is no atmosphere, light is so strong as would harm the eyes. Apart from this, near infrared rays also spread out in the atmosphere and warm the earth.

It is apparent that there is a highly developed design in the structure of the atmosphere. Out of a spectrum whose width is hinted at by this figure of 10²⁵, the sun emits only those rays that are useful to us and necessary for a colourful world, and the atmosphere mainly allows harmless and indeed useful rays to reach the earth. In addition, due to the properties of the gases present in the atmosphere, the eyes of living beings, which are directly exposed to sunlight, are protected against any harmful effects. All these are evidence that Allah has created everything in due proportion.

He to Whom the kingdom of the heavens and the earth belongs. He does not have a son and He has no partner in the Kingdom. He created everything and determined it most exactly. (Surat al-Furqan: 2)