New converts to Islam often speak with awed reverence for the “brotherhood” (or indeed sisterhood) of the faith: that feeling that, wherever you are in the world, you can walk into a mosque, shuffle up to a congregation as they prepare to pray and be treated as one of the group. Islam puts great emphasis on praying together in congregation, which is why praying at a mosque is said to be preferable to praying alone.
It is humbling to see, therefore, how much of that spirit of the faith is kept by the men praying on the site of the former Mosque 299 in Al Wahda in Abu Dhabi. Despite the old mosque being demolished two years ago, a regular congregation still gathers in the open-air. For most of those who attend, they could easily walk to a nearby – and air-conditioned – mosque, or else pray alone in their homes or businesses. But they choose to get together as they have long done and pray in the open air.
As we pass through the last few days of Ramadan – a period Muslims believe contains especially potent spiritual power – it is powerful to see such unostentatious devotion to the faith, with groups of men gathering together as travellers must have done for centuries, in the open-air, raising their hands and eyes to heaven for spiritual sustenance.