Mahmood has published papers concerning djinni, which are described in the Quran as beings made of fire. He has proposed that djinni could be tapped to solve the energy crisis. "I think that if we develop our souls, we can develop communication with them," Mahmood said about djinni in "The Wall Street Journal" in an interview in 1988: "Every new idea has its opponents," he added. "But there is no reason for this controversy over Islam and science because there is no conflict between Islam and science."