Every package of dates Hiba Rahim receives contains roughly 300 of the fruits and weighs about 10 pounds.

Multiply that by the four boxes she sends to each of the 40 prisons she's working with, and Rahim has sent 12,000 dates, 400 pounds, to incarcerated Muslims in Florida. That's roughly the same weight as a small grand piano. 

Muslims in Florida, and those in Florida's prisons, continue to observe Ramadan, the holy month in Islam, despite the coronavirus pandemic. 

Rahim is a community activist and organizer with the Florida chapter of a national Muslim civil rights group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

During Ramadan, Muslims who fast from dawn to sunset traditionally break their fasts by eating the fruit during iftar, the first meal after sunset. 

“We want Muslim inmates to know they have a voice outside of the prison," Rahim said of why the donations were important to those who are incarcerated. "We want the administration to know that there is a civil rights organization that is vigilant and attentive."

In a lengthy March 10 memo the Florida Department of Corrections sent out internally, the department laid out guidelines for how prisons are to conduct services for Muslims during the month.

In Islam, it is common for people to pray in congregations, but during the pandemic, incarcerated Muslims must pray individually.

In mid-April, the department followed up with a second memo amending these guidelines to promote social distancing and limit group sizes. 

"Muslims were instructed to fast so they could learn self-restraint," the March memo reads and cites a sura (chapter) and ayat (verse) from the Quran.

Individual observances also will apply during Eid al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of the month. This year, Eid, as it is simply called, falls on May 24. 

Read Full Story:  https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2020/05/15/woman-donates-400-pounds-of-dates-to-incarcerated-florida-muslims-for-ramadan/3069461001/