He transmitted ḥadith from Hushaym, Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh, ʿAlī ibn Ghurāb, Yaḥyā ibn Yamān, Yazīd ibn Hārūn, and others. Those who reported from him included his nephew al-Junayd ibn Muḥammad, Abū al-Ḥusayn al-Nūrī (1), Muḥammad ibn al-Faḍl ibn Jābir al-Saqqaṭī, and a number of others.
He kept a small shop in which he traded. A slave-girl once passed by him; the vessel she was carrying to buy something for her masters had broken, and she began to weep. Sarī gave her money to purchase a replacement. Maʿrūf, noticing what he had done for the girl, said to him, “May Allah make the life of this world loathsome to you (2).”
Sarī related: “On an Eid day I came upon Maʿrūf with a small, unkempt boy. I asked, ‘What is this?’ He replied, ‘This child was standing while the other boys were playing and he felt dejected. I said to him, “Why do you not play?” He answered, “I am an orphan; I have nothing with which to buy walnuts to play with.” So I brought him along in order to gather date-pits for him so that he could buy walnuts and be happy.’ I said, ‘Shall I not clothe him and give him something to buy with?’ He said, ‘Would you really do that?’ I replied, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘Then take him—may Allah enrich your heart!’” Sarī added, “From that moment the world became to me the least significant of things.”
On another occasion he had some almonds. A man bargained with him for a kur (3) of them at sixty-three dinars, then went away. Later the man discovered that a kur of almonds was worth ninety dinars, so he returned and said, ‘I will buy the kur from you for ninety dinars.’ Sarī replied, ‘I bargained with you for sixty-three, and I will sell it only for that.’ The man said, ‘Then I am buying it from you for ninety.’ Sarī answered, ‘I will not sell it except for the price at which we bargained.’ The man said, ‘To be sincere, I ought not to buy it from you for anything less than ninety dinars,’ and he left without purchasing it.
A woman once came to Sarī and said, ‘My son has been taken by the guards, and I would like you to write to the chief of police so that he will not be beaten.’ He rose and performed the prayer, prolonging it, while the woman was consumed with worry. When he finished, she cried, ‘For Allah’s sake, my son!’ He replied, ‘Here I am concerning your need.’ He had not yet left his seat (4) when another woman came up to her and said, ‘Rejoice! The official has released your son,’ whereupon she departed to him.
Sarī said, ‘I yearn to eat a single meal for which I will bear no liability (5) and for which no one will have any favor over me, yet I can find no way to attain that.’