Zaghloul El-Naggar


Zaghloul Ragheb Mohammed Al Naggar, better known as Zaghloul El-Naggar, was an Egyptian geologist, Islamic scholar and author. The main theme of El-Naggar's books was science in Quran; his philosophy of science is blended with religion. He left his academic career to become the Chairman of Committee of Scientific Notions in the Qur'an, Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs, Cairo, Egypt.

Background

El-Naggar was born on 17 November 1933. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Cairo. El-Naggar obtained his PhD in geology from the University of Wales in the United Kingdom in 1963 where his thesis title was "Geology and stratigraphic palaeontology of the Esna-Idfu Region, Nile Valley, Egypt, U.A.R.". El-Naggar was an elected Fellow of the Islamic Academy of Sciences, the Geological Society of Egypt and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was imprisoned because of his political activism and beliefs during his student life. He was considered a grave threat to secular political establishment of Egypt. He was exiled from Egypt in early 1960s and could return to his country only in 1970.
El-Naggar died in Amman, Jordan on 9 November 2025, at the age of 91.

Works

El-Naggar wrote a book entitled The Geological Concept of Mountains in the Qur'an. It was published by New Vision when El-Naggar was the chair of geology at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. This book sold fairly well, leading El-Naggar to leave teaching and become the Chairman of Committee of Scientific Notions in the Qur'an.
He published more than 150 scientific studies and articles, none of them peer reviewed, and 45 books in Arabic, English and French. For instance, his book The issue of Scientific Miracles in the Holy Quran. Many of those publications deal with what are considered to be scientific miracles in Qur'an.

Controversial claims and religion

El-Naggar said that the power of America would eventually end.
Camel urine was prescribed as a treatment by El-Naggar, which has anti-cancer properties according to a peer-reviewed paper.
He engaged in 9/11 denial.

Splitting of the Moon

El-Naggar claimed in 2004 that NASA had, in 1978, confirmed in a television program the splitting of the Moon.