75 Devotional Poetry and Religious Authority: Muḥammad al-Yadālī and the Ṣalāt Rabbī maʿa al-salāmi in Praise of the Prophet Muḥammad Abubakar Abdulkadir (University of Alberta) Abstract The present paper provides an analysis of the Arabic poem Ṣalāt Rabbī maʿa al-salāmi, composed by the Mauritanian Sufi Muḥammad al-Yadālī, stressing the metrical novelty of the poem. Looking at this composition in the framework of classical Mauritanian notions about literary dexterity and religious authority, the paper argues that the religious authority that al-Yadālī enjoyed during his life as well as in the following generations was mainly built around the literary skills he displayed in his writings and in particular, in this poem. The study of literary texts, in a context such as that of Mauritanian Islam, can provide new insights into the sociology of religious authority. Keywords: Mauritania; Prophetic praise; Muḥammad al-Yadālī; Sufism; religious authority. I consider every praise of the Prophet deficient Even if the one who praises him exaggerates in his praise and even more For God already praised him with what is more befitting of him Thus what benchmark should creation use in his praise! Ibn al-Fāriḍ (576/1181-632/1285). 1 O chosen one before the existence of Adam And the cosmos was yet to open from it closure Can creation seek to praise you enough after what The Creator has already praised of your beautiful qualities? Lisān al-Dīn b. al-Khaṭīb (713/1313 – 776/1374). 2 1 He was ʿUmar b. al-Fāriḍ b. Murshid b. ʿAlī al-Ḥamdī. It is reported in numerous accounts that these verses are a response by Ibn Fāriḍ in a dream in which he was seen and was asked why he did not compose any panegyric poem (madīḥ) of the Prophet. 2 Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Saʿīd al-Tilimsānī al-al-Lūshī al-Gharnāṭī al- Andalūsī famously known as Lisān al-Dīn b. al-Khaṭīb, nicknamed Dhū al- Wizāratayn al-Qalamwa’s-Sayf. He was a Vizier, a historian, and a linguist. He was originally from Granada but migrated to Tlemcen (in today’s Algeria) Journal for Islamic Studies, Vol. 38, No. 2, 2020, 75-101