Bismillahi Rahmani Raheem, Assalamu Alaikum.
Rasul Allah (saws) taught us the answer to this question, before reading it though don’t look at it from your perspective, look at it as “this is how He (saws) saw Allah” and you will arrive at the right perception.
The answer He (saws) gave to us was simple but it was after something deep occurred in our life and was a tafsir of that event, He (saws) said; “Allah is what man can achieve with Him.”
This is what He is! it is referring to time and qadr (What He fates you) over time, and the hadith Qudsi where Allah says “I am Time”, “Dahr”, I am the span of time, meaning Allah’s complete picture is known by what He decrees or does over the span of time of the universe, and from what man can achieve with Him in his lifetime, what each person is given by Allah tells you who Allah is.
What you have to consider though is that only a person who is actively working to be conscious of Allah can see this, because Allah is giving all the time but most people are heedless of what He is doing, so Allah’s actions go unnoticed, it is not because they can not be noticed.
Only someone like a wali (saint) who frees himself from attachments (Zuhd) that engage your perception all the time, can define this properly because Allah gives to people according to what is happening in their lives and only they see their lives with clarity, “He Who Knows Himself Knows His Lord”, no only really sees other people’s complete perspectives on events, you only see yours, so when Allah is giving to you no one else can really see it only you if you are paying attention and looking for it.
That is why only the saintly notice Allah while those with evil in them don’t really care to notice so they go for 40 or more years in life wondering if it is real and what are these people talking about.
Shaykh Rami Al Rifai.
“O you who have believed, obey Allah and obey the Messenger and those in authority among you.” (4:59)