Hazrat Sultan Bahu poem "I knew God well..."

I knew God well when love flashed before me.
It gives me strength by night and day, and shows what lies ahead.
In me are flames, in me is fuel, in me is smoke.
I only found my Beloved, Bahu, when love made me aware.

-Hazrat Sultan Bahu
trans. from Punjabi by Jamal Elias

God consciousness (Taqwa) is the light that illumines all that exists, transforming it through love. The Prophet (saw) prayed for God to "show him things as they truly are". In the same way, Hazrat Sultan Bahu says he "found God", meaning he found the Truth (al Haq) through that light of awareness/mindfulness.
Love is a lightning bolt that strikes the limited self, transforming it into a conduit of the Divine. The "self" becomes transparent to Allah when love reverberates through the heart. A psycho-spiritual, alchemical transformation then occurs, where as the hadith qudsi (divine saying) mentions, God "comes to us running".
When this happens we have the strength to endure anything in this dunya (world). We simply say Alhumdulillah (Praise to the One) whether life goes up or down, whether we receive praise or blame. We then see the past, present and future are all contained in a tiny dot along with all the Universes.
When the gaze peers inwardly (batin), all causation occurs within the heart (qalb). The stages of searching, finding and experiencing Allah in this life are all happening at once, not in some far place to be journeyed to, not at some distant point, but constantly in the present moment.
Then, one finds that it is not you who are searching. It is God who has found you, and brought you to the Divine court.
Love is the light which guides the way.