Aiman Azlan's Blog

All the videos about people doing stupid things shouldn't be uploaded at all. In fact, they shouldn't even be recorded. A person who does something stupid, especially during moments of anger, will almost always regret it afterwards. We all know how that feels because we've all been there. All we want at that moment is to ask forgiveness and move on. How on earth can a person move on if his/her stupidity is being recorded, uploaded, and shared all over the internet? To make matters worse, people are negatively commenting on the video. Is this going to make things better? Honestly? Instead of recording, how about helping instead? Let us prevent things from escalating by putting an end to it right there and then, instead of whipping out our smartphone and recording it while giggling, thinking that it's going to be viral. Yes, it will most probably be viral. Congrats, we got what we wanted. On top of that, we became the culprit that initiated the public sham...

5 million lives. To put that number into perspective, imagine the largest stadium of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, the Maracana stadium in Brazil. That’s a lot of people right? But that’s only 71,000 people, nowhere close to 5 million. The largest concert in history is said to be Rod Stewart’s concert at Copacabana Beach in 1994. But that’s only 3.5 million people. That is a lot of people, but it is still not 5 million. The largest mosque in the world, the Masjidil Haram, has the capacity to hold up to 4 million people. That is a mind-blowing number, but it is still short of a million people. 5 million lives is a very huge figure to wrap our heads around, and I don’t want to disrespect these 5 million lives by just mentioning them as a number. Each of these 5 million people has a face, a name, a background, a family, a story, and most important of all, each of these 5 million people has a life. Just like us. So if you think about it that way, we can actually relate to these 5 mi...

I am a Psychology student, who hopes to be a counselor (or the likes of it) someday. Once, I told a friend of mine about this ambition. He simply said that I will go crazy, because I am putting myself in a position where I have to listen to all kinds of problems from all kinds of people. For a moment, he managed to make me feel bad and feel afraid of becoming a counselor. But then, upon reflection, my fear turned into gratitude because instead of thinking that I will be burdening myself with the problems of many different people, I think differently. It is not a burden. It is an honour. It is an honour to be put in a position where people come to you to vent and to express their deepest worries, to share their most personal issues, and to give permission to you to see a side of them that they don't show to other people, not even the people closest to them. Alhamdulillah, people have shared things with me that they don't even share with their parents. For parents, I ...

Photo credit: Rachel Kramer "O God, why did You do this to me?" If anyone has a right to ask that question, it would be Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) - but he never did. Even during the lowest point of his life i.e. the incident at Taif, what he said to God was simply, "If there is no anger from You on me, then I will forever be content." And you were not at the side of the mount when We called [Moses] but [you were sent] as a mercy from your Lord to warn a people to whom no warner had come before you that they might be reminded. And if (We had) not (sent you to the people of Makkah) in case a calamity should seize them for (the deeds) that their hands have sent forth, they would say: "Our Lord! Why did You not send us a Messenger? We should then have followed Your Ayat (Verses of the Quran) and should have been among the believers." [Quran, Surah Al-Qasas, Verses 46 & 47] The Prophet (peace be upon him) came to us to get rid...

*<email> Assalamualaikum brother Aiman. I am not sure if you will be the one reading this e-mail but I will give it a go anyway. Hello. My name is ... and I am an 18 year old girl from Malaysia. I was born in a family where my father comes from Australia and my mom is from Malaysia. Growing up, it was very difficult because I was there to witness and go through many different family problems. Besides that, my parents are not religious. I never understood why my mother would always send me to mengaji (Quran) classes and told me to pray while she never did any of those. Nor did my father. When I became older, I went through a lot of trials myself in school and through my personal relationship with God. Yes, I was sent to mengaji classes and told to pray, but never was I taught the real meaning of Islam or any other religions. I believe that it was my responsibility to learn more about Islam but I was lost. I didn't know how to start and who could help me. My two broth...

June 27th, 2014 marked the end of my "40 Days of Positivity" social media campaign, using the hashtag #40DaysOfPositivity. Why 40 days? Because I believe that if you want to turn something into a habit, then you must do it consistently for at least 40 days. The basic idea is that it takes a long time for a good habit to really sink in and becomes second nature to us. Cultivating good habits require effort, time, and patience. The inspiration to start this campaign started when I realized that there are a lot of negativity on the internet, especially in social media sites - people arguing, complaining, spreading rumours, and the like. I don't want to hop onto the same bandwagon, so I decided to make this campaign. Mostly it was for myself, so that I can be more positive on the internet but it turned out to be beneficial for others as well. Many are doing their own #40DaysOfPositivity. So that's good to know. I posted these messages on my Facebook and Twitter...

One of the big challenges for the human mind is to think outside of itself. We like to assume that whatever that we think we know about something or someone is the whole truth, even if in reality it is only an assumption we made based on a limited amount of information which may or may not cover all the many aspects of that something or someone.  I read a saying once, "Don't judge me till you walk a mile in my shoes or live a day in my life." I agree with the saying, but it sounds like a lot of work. Doesn't it? Wouldn't be easier to just assume? When someone cuts you off in a highway, it is easier to just assume that he is a reckless driver, rather than to entertain the possibility that he might have a wife who is in labour and he needs to get to the hospital ASAP.  When a young, attractive woman married an old man, it is easier to assume that she is a gold-digger, rather than to entertain the possibility that she might actually love the guy....