Abū Naṣr ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlī al-Sarrāj (in Arabic: أبو نصرعبدالله ابن علي السرَّاج, in Persian: ابونصر عبدالله بن علی بن محمد بن یحیی سرّاج) (died 988) was a Sunni sheikh and ascetic born in Tūs, Iran. He traveled widely in the Islamic world, having lived in cities as diverse as

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...

Tabriz Tabriz ( fa, تبریز ; ) is a city in northwestern Iran, serving as the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. It is the List of largest cities of Iran, sixth-most-populous city in Iran. In the Quri Chay, Quru River valley in Iran's historic Aze ...

Ramla Ramla or Ramle ( he, רַמְלָה, ''Ramlā''; ar, الرملة, ''ar-Ramleh'') is a city in the Central District of Israel. Today, Ramle is one of Israel's mixed cities, with both a significant Jewish and Arab populations. The city was f ...

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...

, Damascus,

Basra Basra ( ar, ٱلْبَصْرَة, al-Baṣrah) is an Iraqi city located on the Shatt al-Arab. It had an estimated population of 1.4 million in 2018. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is han ...

, 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.

Kitāb al-luma'

Sarrāj is best known for his work, ''Kitāb al-luma' fi'l-taṣawwuf (كتاب اللمع في التصوف, The Book of Light Flashes on Sufism)'', one of the earliest surveys of Sufism in which he affirms Sufism as an "authentic religious discipline" before he delves into accounting the different modes of knowing in Sufism. His book is considered an encyclopedia for the history of Islamic Sufism, different modes of knowing within Sufism, and Sufi concepts and sayings. The book was very successful in being one of the first "authoritative documentary" surveys, forged by first-hand information from thirty-nine Sufi authorities on a total of around 200 Sufis. Sarrāj also sought in the book to demonstrate Sufism's compatibility with mainstream Sunni Islam.

Other works

In addition to his scholarly activities, Sarrāj was highly active in the early Sufi community. He was the head of the order of

dervishes Dervish, Darvesh, or Darwīsh (from fa, درویش, ''Darvīsh'') in Islam can refer broadly to members of a Sufi fraternity (''tariqah''), or more narrowly to a religious mendicant, who chose or accepted material poverty. The latter usage i ...

in Baghdad, and was thus responsible for the day-to-day management of the Sufi community in the

Abbasid The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib ...

capital. This position of power led him to become the ''sheikh'' (teacher) of many prominent early Sufis, including Abu al-Fadl ibn al-Hasan al-Sarakhsi, who was himself the sheikh of Abū-Sa'īd Abul-Khayr,

al-Qushayri 'Abd al-Karīm ibn Hawazin Abū al-Qāsim Banu Qushayr, al-Qushayrī al-Naysābūrī ( fa, , ar, عبد الكريم بن هوازن بن عبد الملك بن طلحة أبو القاسم القشيري; 986 – 30 December 1072) was an Ara ...

, and Ja'far al-Khaldi. Similarly, Sarrāj was considered one of the foremost ''faqaha (legal scholars) in early Sufism. 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. السراج الطوسي، أبو نصر عبد الله
الموسوعة العربية الميسرة، 1965

References

{{Authority control Sufi mystics 10th-century deaths People from Tus, Iran Iranian Sufis Mystics from Iran