A long time ago, (well, more than thirty years can be considered as a long time, right?) when I was full of questions about Islam (and I am even more full of even more questions about Islam now but that's another story), I asked an ustaz how we will look like in janna. Will we, I asked him, look old or young?
The ustaz, Allah blessed him with hidayah, told me that in akhirah, we are no longer in this dimension and therefor things which we consider to be real in this world no longer apply. So how we look and the idea of old and young does not apply in janna.
Once, I tuned in to BBC World Service and listened to a phone-in radio program about Islam. Someone called in and asked the ustaz on air whether it was true that we would meet Allah in janna. The ustaz said that it was not possible because to say that we would meet Allah in janna would mean that janna is bigger than Allah. Nothing can be bigger than Allah, of course.
So why does the Quran talk about such things like trees and flowing rivers in janna?
As an experiment, try explaining to a small child of, say, three years of age, about the sensation of orgasm and you will begin to have a very rough understanding of what I am talking about.
The Quran is meant as a guide book for all of us to use until kiamat. Therefor it has to explain things in the unseen dimension in a way which we can understand. Janna is described as a place with trees, flowing rivers and houris so that it is easy for us to visualize janna.
As a very rough analogy, let's say the reward for salaah is described as twenty-seven twirling lights of forty-three different colors blinking and flashing in seventy-two different random patterns. I think even Albert Einstein would have a problem visualizing that.
For myself, I find that the reward promised by Islam is already evident when I try my best to practice Islam as closely as I humanly can. Whatever awaits me in janna, only Allah knows. Whether I even get to janna at all is totally up to Allah. After, what right has a slave to make demands of his master? So what right have I, as an insignificant creation, to demand anything of my Rabb, my creator?
Please do not make the mistake committed by so many people. So many people have created their god in their own image so much so that they cannot see the absurdity of worshiping a god who goes to the toilet just like they do.
So if you are sincere about wanting to know more about Islam, I heartily recommend that you learn by doing. For example, what's so wonderful about performing salaah? Only way to really find out is to perform salaah. After all, you don't have to pay a million-dollar membership fee up front to be a Muslim. You don't even have to be a Muslim to learn how to perform salaah. So give it a try.
May Allah bless you with the nur of hidayah. Ameen, ameen, ya Rabbil alamin. AlhamduliLLahi Rabbil alamin.
That would be heaven! Just kidding.