In this rare and deeply personal photograph, Dutch photographer Guus Dubbelman captures Muhammad Ali during morning prayers at his home in Los Angeles in 1985. Taken over the course of a five-day stay, the image reveals a quiet, introspective side of the legendary boxer far removed from the public spectacle of the ring.

Dubbelman’s connection to Ali began nearly a decade earlier, when, as a teenager, he waited for hours in the lobby of Amsterdam’s Hotel Okura to meet his idol. What followed was a friendship marked by mutual curiosity and respect. Through Ali, Dubbelman found not only a subject but a human story - one of faith, vulnerability, and grace.

This photograph is perhaps his most intimate portrait of Ali: the champion at rest, absorbed in prayer, his strength transformed into stillness. Dubbelman’s lens, grounded in empathy and fascination, offers a rare glimpse of a man who was both a global icon and profoundly human.