Reddit mentions of Al-Ghazali on Love, Longing, Intimacy & Contentment (Ghazali Series)

> I love how you worded that, masha'Allah.

Alhamdulillah. I wrote completely different at first, and was about to just give up lol cuz I didn't like it, but decided to rewrite to see if I could up with anything better.
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Do you get there by just practicing tawakkal as well as fulfilling your obligations?

To rephrase, I'm assuming you are basically asking, "how I do obtain the mere desire to love God?" Basically, this comes after a lot of self-reflection. For me, it was the profound emptiness I felt after indulging in aspects of life, such as music, food, entertainment, and etc. At the end of each of these activities, there was always a spurt of excitement, which was then always followed by emptiness, dissatisfaction, and side effects (such as headaches, stomach ache). I tried to fill this emptiness by repeating and indulging more, which became cyclic. I realized I was not getting anywhere (and subhanallah it is mentioned in Surah Takwir فَأَيْنَ تَذْهَبُونَ - so where are you going?) and I was left with a vacuum in my heart. I realized I was trying to fill a permanent emptiness with temporary things. Alhamdulillah I have always been a practicing Muslim due to my upbringing and Allah's mercy, and I realized that only through prayer, reciting Quran, and etc. (which was a huge struggle, as it was not really "fun" in the beginning) was I able to not only feel satisfied, but the immediate and lasting effects were marked with felicity without any of the negative side effects that is felt when indulging in worldly desires. And this is what is called "tasting the sweetness of faith." Once you taste it, nothing else can satiate your appetite.
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الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَتَطْمَئِنُّ قُلُوبُهُم بِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ ۗ أَلَا بِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ تَطْمَئِنُّ الْقُلُوبُ

"Those who believe, and whose hearts find satisfaction in the remembrance of Allah: for without doubt in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find satisfaction.

Now the path to loving God is a long and arduous journey, but Allah makes it easier for us, as He says in a hadith qudsi, "if my servant comes to me step by step, I come to him running." Based on my experience, the journey first starts with fulfilling your obligations and abstaining from the haram. Then you move on to the next level of difficulty: purging yourself from the love of yourself and desires, which is called the concupiscent desires. The Quran talks about the righteous/pious people are those who spend though they love their wealth, they get up in the night though they love sleep, and etc. Once you overcome love of yourself out of love of God, then you move on to the last stage, which I have yet to experience and therefore is where my explanation comes to a halt. If you want to know more about this path, I recommend you read Al-Ghazzali's Kitab al-mahabba (https://www.amazon.com/Al-Ghazali-Longing-Intimacy-Contentment-Ghazali/dp/1903682274)

I hope I did not tangent too much and hopefully answered your question somewhere in there lol.