Aiman Azlan's Blog

I was talking with my wife yesterday about our favourite subjects in school. We were thinking about what we have gained from the years we spent in school. As we were talking and talking, I realized something about myself. I didn't remember the things that I studied just to pass the exam. The things I memorized, almost all of them disappeared from memory now. What a shame. However, the things that I found interesting, whether it be in class, outside of class, in textbook, etc, those were the things that stuck with me until today. Even if those things didn't make it into the exam papers, I still remember them. In some cases, I still apply them in my life. The things I found interesting...those are the things I remember. What's my point? My point is not that exams are not important. They are a part of our lives, a part of the system, and until we can find a better way to implement a better way to measure progress in schools, we have to adapt and live with exams....

Even the best of us has our weak moments, when our emotions blur our eyes and our better judgment. That is one of the features of being human. It is a packaged deal. Having said that, it is not an excuse for us human beings not to put in the effort to get our emotions in check. You can't make a strong argument to defend your emotional misbehaviours by saying, "Hey, I'm human!" If that is the case, then there will be so many wrong actions unaccounted for because people can simply get away with it by simply making a statement about how human they are. The idea that we are human and that we are not perfect is sound and just. But, when it is used as an excuse to commit something wrong, then the same innocent statement can become evil. As a counter measure, we need to instil in ourselves the idea of not just being a human being, but being a responsible human being - someone who takes ownership of his choices and face the consequences of those choices. Though t...

Let's have a honest conversation about our human condition. We all have issues, but some have them more severely than others. It's like physical illness. We all have the normal fever sometimes. But there are others who are battling worse illnesses like diabetes, stroke, and cancer. Nobody would dare to tell a cancer patient to just "shake it off" or "you're being silly" or "your Iman isn't strong enough." Mental health issues are real and they can be pervasive. The people who have these issues need the encouragement to enable them to reach out and seek the help they need. My dream is to live in a world where people with mental health issues can walk into a counselor's office or a psychiatrist's office knowing that he or she will be helped and supported - not condemned and judged. Let's educate ourselves and others about mental health and where you can get professional help. Don't worry. Seeking help doesn'...

My wife and I in Mina It has been a week since my wife and I came back from hajj. The memory is still fresh, but I can feel that it is fading away. It is similar to the feeling I get after Ramadan is over. The spirit is still high, but without any maintenance it will slowly dissipates with the passage of time. To avoid the all-too-common downhill ride, we decided to write a book about our hajj experience. There is more than one intention behind it, obviously. But one of the intention is to make the book a perpetual reminder of our experience. Kind of like the time when I wrote a letter to myself before I got married . To give you an idea of how forgetful I am, I posted the letter on this blog, included it in my bestselling book " The Other Side of the Coin ", and made a video about me reading the letter out loud on my Youtube channel, and still...I forget. With this book, we hope to put ourselves in a situation where we have to continuously remind ourselves abou...