Thursday 6 Jumada al-ula 1446 - 7 November 2024
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Does using colours in marketing have anything to do with divination?

Question

I was reading about colours and which colours go with one another, and how colours have an impact on us. I found out that orange is a warm colour that helps people to connect with one another, and I also found out that it stimulates the appetite. Is using what I learned about colours and their effect on people a permissible means of marketing, such as painting a fast food restaurant orange, in an attempt to improve the atmosphere inside the restaurant, or does this come under the heading of divination and something that is not permissible?

Answer

Praise be to Allah.

There is nothing wrong with using colours in marketing. There are colours that people like, or that calm their nerves, and there are colours that people are put off by.

There are some studies, the authenticity of which we have not verified, which speak of colours and their psychological effect in the manner that you have described, such as the suggestion that the colour orange gives a sense of ease and warmth, and that the colour red is provocative and stirs up anger.

Whatever the case, if it is proven by experience that people are inclined towards a certain colour, then choosing this colour for marketing purposes has nothing to do with divination, because divination is claiming to have knowledge of the unseen and to foretell future events.

In al-Mawsoo‘ah al-Fiqhiyyah (14/52) it says: Divination is claiming to speak about events in the future and claims to know secret things. End quote.

And Allah knows best.

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Source: Islam Q&A