Observance: a study of prayer by Jeff Topping

From their bus seats laborers watch as their fellow laborers and friends pray before returning to Mussafah after a day of work in Abu Dhabi

Men face Mecca during Dhuhr prayers on Maliha Street in Sharjah.

Al Wahda's goalkeeping coach Adel Al Mamor offers Isha prayers during half time of the team's game against Al Ahli.

Farmer, Taz Khan, 28, from Quetta, Pakistan offers Maghrib prayers near a farm where one of his friends works between Abu Dhabi and Al Ain.

Men offer sunrise prayers outside the Sheka Abd Allah Alzaabi Mosque in the Nadi Alciahi neighborhood during the first day of EID.

Mohammad Shamshad Alam offers Isha prayers inside Arabic Special Tailors in Oud Metha, Dubai, where he is the manager.

Laborers from Green Africa General Contracting and Albwardy Engineering stop for Maghrib Prayers just off Sheikh Zayed Road near Jebel Ali Free Zone.

A taxi driver offers his Maghrib prayer in Al Hamra, Ras al Khaimah.

A labourer offers Asr prayers at a construction site in Ras al Khaimah City.

A police officer offers his Dhuhr prayers at the RAK Museum in Ras al Khaimah.

On their way to their camp in Jebel Ali after a day's work, labourers stop to offer Maghrib prayers along Sheikh Zayed Road.

One of the key principles of prayer is one can pray anytime and anywhere. This principle is never more visible than it is in Islamic communities.
Coming from a Christian background National Staff Photographer Jeff Topping, never saw a single person, let alone a large group of men stop on the side of the road, kneel on a prayer rug in a tailor shop, find a solitary spot in a building under construction or kneel together blocking a main street as the cars wait patiently for it to end.
As Maghrib prayer time approaches towards the end of the day, and as workers travel home in buses, Jeff would observe great numbers stopping at the side of the road, unrolling their prayer rugs or sometimes a large plastic sheet in the absence of a rug, and facing Mecca to offer their prayers.
 
Prayer is an individual and group experience and sometimes considered a private experience. But since moving to the UAE and photographing Muslims praying in dozens of situations and locations, Jeff found that even one who is not partaking in prayer is welcomed and that very little can interrupt one's prayer.
The following photographs show how prayer knows no boundaries and is not confined to any location.