The above statement is a pararphrased quote from Charles Panati’s book, Sacred Origins of Profound Things. In the chapter called Divine Do’s and Don’ts, and referring to The Nation of Islam, he states:
To which I thought, Hmmmm – never really thought about it like that before, but yeah, that seems to be true. I don’t know any devout black Muslims who smoke. But then he says
I briefly converted to NOI in my teens. I haven’t submitted to The Nation of Islam’s practices in years. Yet I don’t remember any dietary restrictions on any vegetables at all. Pork products, sure. But veggies? I remember the big feasts at the end of Ramadan and how the families had damn every vegetable to eat, from kale, spinach, collard, turnip greens and cabbage to corn breads to black eye peas.
Which leads me to the following three questions:
Can anyone help me find a cite in a NOI document supporting this claim?
Which dozen vegetables, exactly?
Is this dietary restriction something that was true at one point but has been revoked – like Catholics not eating meat on Fridays?
Y’know, I knew that ol’ Elijah was off his gourd in his more extreme beliefs, but it’s nice to see this kind of thing spelled out. Thank you for the link, Squink. I forgot about “Eat to Live.”
How very fortunate that while he Elijah Muhammad made these vegetables verboten, he left sugar, cream and dry navy beans alone. Otherwise, like Jomo Mojo mentioned, they never would have sold bean pies!