Aiman Azlan's Blog

For quite some time now I have been fascinated with the idea of being minimal. Minimalism , as how I defined it, is the philosophy of wanting less in order to focus more on what one needs. This idea can be applied in many ways, not just in terms of material acquisition. Minimalism can also be applied to graphic design, for example. When you create a poster or a t-shirt or anything graphic related, you try to reduce the amount of decoration and information to its bare essentials, while still maintaining its artistic value. I find this kind of graphic designing to be more fulfilling and efficient, since you are not being bombarded with unnecessary elements. It goes straight to the point. This is especially useful when you are trying to get the message across as fast as possible, which is very relevant given that we are moving faster and that our attention span is not that long. Anyway, I wanted to talk about minimalism and how it improves the quality of my life and maybe your life ...

Last weekend I conducted a 4-hour seminar about English speaking at one of the local universities here. It was not my first time doing this, so I can safely assume how the students would participate (although I still reserve a space for the contrary to happen): students were mostly passive, didn't quite respond to my questions or requests. It is one of those common things that university students do, but I didn't want to conform to this abnormal norm. So I tried my level best to encourage them to speak up and speak out, but continuously challenging their minds and emotions with questions and requests (e.g. asking them to fill up the front seats). 3 hours into the seminar, I wanted to start our last session: the discussion session. The basic idea is that I want them to use this opportunity to practice their English speaking. In the previous 3 hours, I tried to convey the message to them that it is not about getting it right all the time, but it is simply about trying and bel...

Some might think that a healthy relationship involves no fighting, but this is far from reality. All married couples fight, but the difference between the ones who are in a healthy relationship and the ones who are not, is that the healthy ones don't fight over small things and when they do fight, they don't go over board. But that is not the intention of this blog post. Perhaps I'll save that for later. The "fighting" that I am referring to here is about healthy competition. It involves no flying plates and no ill feelings. But it does involve you trying to one up on your spouse. The spirit of this competition is based upon this verse of the Quran, "...so race to [all that is] good..." (Surah Al-Maidah, Verse 48). How does this translate into your married life? Well, you can go about this in multiple ways but the one way that I like the most is service. So race with one another to see who can serve the other better. Let the race begins! There are ...

There is a pile of unfolded clothes on my bed from last week's laundry. I look at it, sigh, and move on doing other things. I keep putting it off because there is too much clothes to deal with. Then the next laundry day comes and the pile keeps on getting bigger. I thought why do we even need a cupboard for clothes anyway, since we can just pile them up on the bed and rummage through them whenever we need something to wear. Thankfully, this dilemma doesn't happen all the time. I do fold the laundry and organize our clothes in the cupboard.  But it feels like the cycle keeps on repeating itself. Every time I do the laundry, I would skip the folding because I feel like it's too much work. Seeing the pile of clothes is demotivating. Procrastination is the easiest solution; just act like you don't see it and preoccupy yourself with something else.  The thing is, that pile of clothes is there and will remain there unless I do something about it. It is a big pile ...

In 2013, I graduated from University of Toronto, Canada with a degree in Biology and Psychology in my hand. Upon reflecting about who I am today, I found that my university years had shaped me quite a lot. There were a number of things that I can do to fill my time in between classes, tests, and exams. But, I chose to invest my time, energy, and money on a few specific things. The main reason why I chose these few things is because I want to spiritually grow to become a person of benefit to other people. That was what I chose to be my reason for choosing certain things. I believe it is our choice to choose a reason, and that reason will be reflected in our daily doings.  To spiritually grow as a person, I don't limit myself to the mosque and personal acts of worship only. I believe spiritual growth takes root inside, but it expands outside. Meaning, you can't be spiritually mature if you only benefit yourself.  Choosing friends was among the first things on my to...

*Assalamualaikum.  I want to get married but my parents won't let me, specifically because the person I want to marry lives far from us. My parents want me to marry someone closer. The person I want to marry is a good potential spouse for me.  What should I do? Waalaikumussalam warahmatullah. Thank you for your question. 1. I have to be honest with you: there is no black-and-white answer in this kind of a situation. When you deal with human beings, you have to consider the person, the context, and the potential effects of your actions. It requires wisdom to know what would be the best thing to do in a given situation, given the type of people, context, and potential effects that you are dealing with. So, off the bat, I have to say that I cannot give you a straightforward answer. 2. I can offer you a general guideline for you to use in your situation. The first guideline would be to know how important it is to be good to your parents. In whatever situation you are...

*I have a teenage daughter and I am worried about her. She is in the phase of having feelings towards the opposite sex. In our family, we have an understanding that we should not mingle freely with the opposite sex who is not our mahram. She likes this one boy and she tells me about him. She is about to go to university soon, so I am concerned that I can't be there for her as much as I can now. What should I do? I appreciate the honesty and I will try to assist you the best I can. First of all, I would like to congratulate you on your parenting because it seems like you have gained the trust of your teenage daughter. You must have done some things right in order to achieve that. I have seen and heard stories of children who can't connect with their parents on a deep enough level such that they are comfortable to talk about personal things. If your daughter can share personal things with you, that means that she trusts you. So don't lose that trust. To be frank, it w...