He traveled widely in the Islamic world, having lived in cities as diverse as Cairo, Tabriz, Ramla, Baghdad, Damascus, Basra, and Nishapur.
He is best known for his seminal Kitāb al-luma (Book of Light), which is considered an encyclopedia of the history of early Sufism.
[3] Sarrāj also sought in the book to demonstrate Sufism's compatibility with mainstream Sunni Islam.
He was the head of the order of dervishes in Baghdad, and was thus responsible for the day-to-day management of the Sufi community in the Abbasid capital.
Though his prominence in the early Sufi community was mainly a result of his scholarship and knowledge of the sharia (Islamic law), it also owed in part to his lineage, as he was descended from a long line of ascetics.