Surkati received his earliest education from his father and succeeded in memorizing the text of al-Quran at a young age.

Two of his famous teachers in Medina were two members of the original Moroccan muhaddiths, namely Sheikh Salih and Umar Hamdan.

[2] His outstanding skills as a scholar began to be noticed in around 1909 when he was awarded a distinguished teaching post in Mecca, a position he retained before He was invited by Jamiat Kheir and moved to Batavia.

His first two years at this position was a great success, creating an assurance for the Jamiat Kheir to hire four more foreign teachers in October 1913.

A situation arose regarding the permissibility of non-sayyid men marrying a sayyid woman in Solo in 1913 during the school holidays when Sukarti was staying there and was consulted about the case.

Surkati regarded her situation as disgraceful so proposed that the Hadramis in the area donate money to her or that she be married by a non-Sayyid Muslim.

[4] Surkati gave his answer in more detail with arguments in column Surat al-Jawaab in newspaper "Suluh Hindia" whose editor in chief was Haji Oemar Said Tjokroaminoto.

[2] His opinion was quickly heard by the Jamiat Kheir leaders in Batavia, and his relationship with the more conservative Sayyids began to deteriorate rapidly.

[8] Surkati then wrote his arguments and answers in Al-Masa `il ats-Tsalats in 1925 which contained the issue of Ijtihad, Bid‘ah, Sunnah, Heresy, Ziyarat (visiting graves), Taqbil (kissing the hands of Sayyids)[3][9] and Tawassul.

He initially intended to return to Mecca where he used to teach, but was persuaded to stay by a few non-Sayyid Hadhramis named Umar manqūsh (or Mangus with another transliteration) the Kapitein der Arabieren in Batavia, Sholih ‘Ubaid and Sa’id bin Salim al-Mash’abi, so he then opened another Islamic school named Al-Irshad Al-Islamiya in Batavia on September 6, 1914, with the financial assistance of some Arabs, the largest of which of Abdullah bin Alwi Alatas as 60,000 Dutch gulden.

The first branch was in Tegal in 1917, where its Madrasa led by Ahmad Surkati's first generation student, namely Abdullah bin Salim al-Attas.

Ahmad Surkati was also the spiritual teacher of Jong Islamieten Bond (JIB), where its activists such as Muhammad Natsir, Kasman Sigodimedjo and others often learned from.

His was buried at the Karet Bivak cemetery with modest means, with no gravestone nor sign of anything on the grave to fulfill his last wish before death.