We cannot say love is 'halal' or 'haram' because it is a feeling. Maybe it is not under control. We can judge what is under control. But people who fall in love are in many episodes away from the cleansed and pure atmosphere.
Marriages that are usually good and lasting marriages are those that start at the least affection. That affection grows after marriage and maybe it will grow until the couples continue their companionship at the Jannah.
If we have any affection towards a person, we should ask ourself: Why do we like that person? If we have good Islamic, reasonable justification, then we need not to tell that person of what we feel. However, we can make a serious plan to make him/her ask for your hand. If you want to know the meaning of fitna, a great part of it is what people nowadays call love or romance.
Islam does not allow any illicit relationship between a man and a woman. Allah has established marriage as the legitimate means for satisfying sexual desire, and through marriage a man and woman form a family based on the laws of Allah, and their children are legitimate. In Islam, there is no such thing as a girlfriend-boyfriend relationship. We are either married or we are not. To have a boyfriend or girlfriend, no matter the level of interaction and involvement, is completely 'haram'!
A person may hear that a woman is of good character and virtuous and knowledgeable, so he may want to marry her. Or a woman may hear that a man is of good character and virtuous and knowledgeable and religiously committed, so she may want to marry him. But contact between the two who admire one another in ways that are not Islamically acceptable is the problem, which leads to disastrous consequences. In this case it is not permissible for the man to get in touch with the woman or for the woman to get in touch with the man, and say that he wants to marry her. Rather he should tell her wali (guardian) that he wants to marry her, or she should tell her wali that she wants to marry him, as ‘Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) did when he offered his daughter Hafsah in marriage to Abu Bakar and ‘Uthman (may Allah be pleased with them both). But if the woman contacts the man directly or if the man contacts woman directly, this is may leads to fitnah (temptation).
Oh! Before I end up my post, here is one of the permissible ways to get the one whom we love:
Contact the 'wali' or the guardian of the person whom we desire to marry.
