S33
The diversity of colors in nature
35:27–28 lists colour after colour — fruits, white and red mountain tracts, "extremely black" rock, people and animals — and then ends with knowledge: "Only those fear Allah, from among His servants, who have knowledge."
أَلَمْ تَرَ أَنَّ ٱللَّهَ أَنزَلَ مِنَ ٱلسَّمَآءِ مَآءً فَأَخْرَجْنَا بِهِۦ ثَمَرَٰتٍ مُّخْتَلِفًا أَلْوَٰنُهَا ۚ وَمِنَ ٱلْجِبَالِ جُدَدٌۢ بِيضٌ وَحُمْرٌ مُّخْتَلِفٌ أَلْوَٰنُهَا وَغَرَابِيبُ سُودٌ٢٧ وَمِنَ ٱلنَّاسِ وَٱلدَّوَآبِّ وَٱلْأَنْعَٰمِ مُخْتَلِفٌ أَلْوَٰنُهُۥ كَذَٰلِكَ ۗ إِنَّمَا يَخْشَى ٱللَّهَ مِنْ عِبَادِهِ ٱلْعُلَمَٰٓؤُا۟ ۗ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ عَزِيزٌ غَفُورٌ٢٨
Transliteration: alam tara anna l-laha anzala mina l-samāi māan fa-akhrajnā bihi thamarātin mukh'talifan alwānuhā wamina l-jibāli judadun bīḍun waḥum'run mukh'talifun alwānuhā wagharābību sūdun · wamina l-nāsi wal-dawābi wal-anʿāmi mukh'talifun alwānuhu kadhālika innamā yakhshā l-laha min ʿibādihi l-ʿulamāu inna l-laha ʿazīzun ghafūrun
Do you not see that Allah sends down rain from the sky, and We produce thereby fruits of varying colors? And in the mountains are tracts, white and red of varying shades and [some] extremely black. And among people and moving creatures and grazing livestock are various colors similarly. Only those fear Allah, from among His servants, who have knowledge. Indeed, Allah is Exalted in Might and Forgiving.
Translation: Saheeh International
Meccan, in Sura Fāṭir ("The Originator").
Key words
Mukhtalifan alwānuhā ("of varying colors"), repeated for fruits, mountains and living things. Judad ("tracts"): streaks or paths. Gharābību sūd ("extremely black"). Yakhshā ("fear"): reverent awe (khashya). Al-ʿulamāʾ ("those … who have knowledge").
Whom it addresses
"Do you not see" — the listener, invited to look. The verse ties the list of colours directly to the sentence on knowledge.
See also: 16:13 , 30:22
Classical tafsir
Ibn Kathir on 35:27. "From water He brings forth fruits of various colors, yellow, red, green, white and other colors"; "He created the mountains like this, with different colors, as we also see that there are indeed white and red mountains", and "in some of them there are streaks which are also of varying colors." "Ibn 'Abbas said Al-Judad means pathways." ʿIkrima: "Al-Gharabib means mountains which are high and black." On people and animals: "the same is true of living creatures too, humans and animals", and "animals and cattle vary in their colors, even within one species". He gives examples of human colour from his own world — "Berbers, Ethiopians and some non-Arabs who are very black", "and Slavs and Romans who are very white, and the Arabs who are in between, and the Indians."
Ibn Kathir on 35:28. "Only those who have knowledge truly fear Him as He should be feared, because the more they know about the Almighty, All-Powerful, All-Knowing Who has the most perfect attributes and is described with the most beautiful Names, … the more they will fear Him." Ibn ʿAbbas (via ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥa): they are "those who know that Allah is able to do all things", and "The one among His servants who knows about Ar-Rahman, is the one who does not associate anything in worship with Him". Saʿīd ibn Jubayr: "Fear is what stands between you and disobeying Allah, may He be glorified." Al-Hasan al-Basri: "The knowledgeable person is the one who fears Ar-Rahman with regard to the Unseen".
Al-Jalālayn on 35:27. "gharābību sūd … meaning dark-black rocks". Tanwīr al-Miqbās: "black mountains, very intense in their blackness".
Where they differ. On judad: pathways (Ibn ʿAbbas) or streaks (Ibn Kathir's own wording; Tanwīr). On "knowledge" in 35:28: knowledge of God's power and attributes (Ibn Kathir; Ibn ʿAbbas), shown in obedience (Saʿīd ibn Jubayr) and in fear of God unseen (al-Hasan). None of them reads "knowledge" here as natural science; that is a modern extension.
How it works
Each point is tied to "of varying colors".
- Colour without pigment. Established Morpho butterfly wings "contain no blue pigment — they harness the physics of light at the nanoscale". This is "structural color": "the production of color by nano-sized elaborate shapes that reflect and bend light"; ridges on the scales are "a key component" (KQED, quoting the Patel lab, UC Berkeley). Each scale is a single cell, about 50 microns across and 200–250 microns long.
- Blue is rare as a pigment. Established "Blue is one the rarest colors made as a pigment"; "Most animals can't produce blue pigments" (Ryan Null, UC Berkeley, in KQED).
- Change the gaps, change the colour. Established When methanol fills the gaps between a Morpho's scale ridges instead of air, the calculated reflected peak shifts from 452 nm to 545 nm — from blue towards green — because the refractive index of the gaps changes (Kuntzleman, ChemEd X, 2019). The colour is in the shape, not in a dye.
- Human skin colour. Established Across populations, "skin reflectance is strongly correlated with absolute latitude and UV radiation levels". Jablonski and Chaplin argue that dark skin "protected against UV-induced photolysis of folate", while lighter skin evolved away from the tropics "to permit UVB-induced synthesis of previtamin D(3)" — "a compromise solution" between the two needs (Journal of Human Evolution, 2000, abstract).
Points of awe
The Morpho's blue is made by shape alone; fill the shape with alcohol instead of air and the blue turns greenish (KQED; Kuntzleman).
Most animals cannot make blue pigment at all (KQED).
Human skin colour tracks sunlight closely: a balance between protecting folate and making vitamin D (Jablonski & Chaplin).
Reflection
35:27 asks a simple question: "Do you not see?" Then it shows us the world as a painter's palette. One rain falls; fruits come out yellow, red, green and white. Mountains run in white and red tracts, and some are "extremely black". People and animals, too, come in "various colors similarly".
Ibn Kathir read this list through the eyes of his own world, naming peoples from Ethiopia to the Slavs. The verse's point is that human colour sits in the same list as the fruits and the hills: a sign of the Creator, not a ranking of people.
Then the verse turns from colour to the one who looks: "Only those fear Allah, from among His servants, who have knowledge." For Ibn Kathir and Ibn ʿAbbas, this is knowledge of God: the more one knows of Him, "the more they will fear Him." A modern reader may extend it, and should say it is an extension: learning how colour works — a butterfly blue made only by shape, a skin tone tuned to sunlight — can deepen the same awe. The danger is the reverse: knowing a lot and seeing nothing. The verse asks for knowledge that leads to reverence.
Questions readers ask next
Who are "those who have knowledge"?
Classically, those who know God: "those who know that Allah is able to do all things" (Ibn ʿAbbas, via Ibn Kathir). Many today extend it to anyone whose study of nature leads to reverence; that is a modern reading.
Why mention the colours of people and animals?
The verse puts them in the same list as fruits and mountains, as a sign. Ibn Kathir: "the same is true of living creatures too, humans and animals".
What are the "tracts" in the mountains?
Judad: "pathways" (Ibn ʿAbbas) or streaks (Ibn Kathir; Tanwīr); the "extremely black" are high black mountains (ʿIkrima) or dark-black rocks (al-Jalālayn).
Why is a Morpho butterfly blue?
Not because of pigment. Tiny ridged structures on its scales reflect and bend light (KQED); fill them with methanol and the colour shifts towards green (Kuntzleman).
Sources
- Saheeh International — 35:27–28.
- Ibn Kathir (abridged English), al-Jalālayn and Tanwīr al-Miqbās, on 35:27, https://surahquran.com/tafsir-english-aya-27-sora-35.html.
- KQED Deep Look, "What Gives the Morpho Butterfly Its Magnificent Blue?", https://www.kqed.org/science/24552/what-gives-the-morpho-butterfly-its-magnificent-blue.
- Tom Kuntzleman, "The Blue Butterfly Effect", ChemEd X (28 January 2019), https://www.chemedx.org/blog/blue-butterfly-effect.
- Jablonski & Chaplin, "The evolution of human skin coloration", Journal of Human Evolution 39(1):57–106 (2000), abstract, https://carta.anthropogeny.org/node/309979.
- EarthDate, "When Paints Don't Need Pigment"
- KQED, "What Gives the Morpho Butterfly Its Magnificent Blue?"
- Al-Rāzī and Ibn Kathīr on 35:27–28