Realization of God is the discovery of the Benefactor, the source of one’s support system and all blessings. Love of God wells up within one’s entire personality with this realization.
The Quran describes one basic quality of the believers thus: “Those who believe love God most.” (2:165) The Believers mentioned in the Quran in this verse are those who have discovered God at the level of realization. All their feelings and emotions will be associated with God alone. Their hearts and minds will focus solely on God.
Owing to his limitations man cannot see God in this present world, but he experiences God’s mercy and blessings at every moment, and this experience is the real source of his love of God. Everything man has received in this world is a blessing from God. The more one thinks of divine blessings, the more one’s love of God will increase. The source of the love of God is the discovery of blessings and not the sight (deedar) of the Benefactor (God).
Who has created man? God! Who has given man great abilities of different kinds? God! Who has created an exceptional planet like the Earth for man? It is God alone! Who has created the life support system for man? God! Who has provided all the needs of man? Again it is God. Who has given man such a mind that, living on this planet Earth, he can encompass the entire universe? It is God alone!
Realization of God is the discovery of the Benefactor who is the source of all blessings. When man attains this realization in the real sense, the love of God wells up within him. Every fibre of his being is enlightened with divine love. Obedience to God is, without doubt, the demand of faith, but it would be an underestimation of the love of God if it is taken only in the sense of obedience. Obedience is only a legal description of the relationship with God, whereas love entails man’s entire existence being molded in the remembrance of God. Man comes to acknowledge God in the perfect sense when it is with the whole of his being.
Source: Love Of God