@Brother Taha,
Is there anything wrong with asking the knower of the unseen to help me with homework?
If by knower of the unseen you mean `Ali, him knowing the unseen in his grave is of no use to us, it is no help to you, so why mention his knowledge of the unseen?
Yeah, I get what you're saying, but this can be taken to an extreme. I mean, if this is the case, then there's no point in Dua at all, is there? We can't change Allah's (s.w.t) mind by asking him to. But that's not the case, as we have many examples of the Prophet (s.a.w.a) performing dua for himself, his family, his companions, his tribe, his ummah, etc. Therefore, supplications do have some effect, right?
You're not changing Allah's mind, Allah already knows whether you're going to call on him or not and whether you're going to be granted what you ask for or not. You call on him because you are ordered to do so and submit to him just as you were ordered to give charity and fast.
As for asking a human to ask Allah for you, such as going to your mother and telling her: "O mother, ask Allah to grant me success."
The above is acceptable and recommended. However, you also have to ask Allah for it and not just your mother alone, your mother's Du`a' would be additional blessing for you because Allah ordered you to seek the blessing and happiness of your mother, asking your mother for Du`a' actually pleases Allah as it shows that you acknowledge a mother's status and if your mother is pleased with you then her Du`a' will have even more Barakah.
Of course, you won't receive any Barakah or reward if you don't ask Allah yourself while believing in Allah's ability to answer your call. Otherwise, imagine a rich guy who hires 10 scholars to make Du`a' for him while he's fooling around and not turning towards Allah himself? What reward and what spiritual fulfillment will this man have? Nothing.
The above was the first case, and it is not the topic of our discussion, do you know why? Because the majority of Shia never say "O `Ali ask Allah to make me succeed", rather they say "O `Ali make me succeed." [Ya `Ali Madad.]
The above is a direct call for help, and so you are asking a slave of Allah for help, an example would be:
"`Ali please get me a horse."
This can be one of two cases:
A- You go to your `Ali's room and ask him for a horse, then he can go and buy you a horse if he chooses and if he is successful in doing so.
B- `Ali is dead, you ask him to get a horse and you expect him to hear your call and grant you your wish through a divine ability or power he possesses.
What's the difference between the two?
In the first, you acknowledge that `Ali is a weak slave like yourself, and that he has to place an effort and use any means granted to him by Allah (such as hard earned money) to help you and there's no guarantee he will succeed.
In the second, you believe that `Ali is omnipresent and all hearing (otherwise why call him if he can't hear?), he has powers to listen and understand your needs as well as the needs of others who call at a similar time even if you do not explain in detail what you ask for, thus he knows what is in your heart, and even though he has no real physical presence, yet he has the power over creations that can grant you what you wish if he wills to help you.
The second is obvious Shirk as you've cancelled the Du`a' to Allah altogether, literally replacing everything Allah can do with `Ali. If that's not associating with Allah then what is?
The Du`a' to Allah is always superior, when addressing Allah you don't even need to explain yourself, you can just say "O Allah, you know what has afflicted me so please help me in it." On the other hand, you can't say: "O `Ali, you know what has afflicted me so please ask Allah to help me with what you know." Because matter of the fact is, assuming `Ali was even alive and with you in the room, he doesn't actually know what has afflicted you, you need to tell him so he may know.
I'm a dirty sinner. If I had a supplication, I could perform it myself but I could also ask my super religious friend to pray for me too. Likewise, if Imam `Ali (a.s) was alive, I would ask him to pray for me. Why should I stop asking for his intercession while he is ... still alive?
Because he isn't physically alive, he's spiritually alive with his Lord in the heavens, if he was physically alive, he could walk to his own grave instead of having others carry him, he could wash himself or at least give them instructions on how to prepare his body and wash it and where to bury him.
So assuming he is still sitting in a hole in the ground with his physical body still capable of hearing, you're going to have to go to his grave and shout hoping he's going to hear you which even if possible would be impractical.
This nation needs to understand that its Prophet (saw) died, and that it is time to move on and progress, because loving the Prophet (saw) is not about shouting his name day and night "Ya Muhammad Ya Muhammad." rather loving him is following his example WHICH NONE OF US DO!
Those who were alive in the time of the Prophet (saw) had a greater blessing than us, we need to understand that we do not have access to that blessing anymore, if there's some verse I don't understand I can't go to Rasul-Allah (saw) and ask him to explain it, because he's dead. I know this and you know this, if right now we go to his grave to ask him a simple question of Fiqh he won't answer, even though as we all believe it is incumbent upon a prophet to carry out his duties of guiding and explaining the religion, yet he won't do it which could mean either he's a sinner who abandoned his divine task, or he's a fraud and not a real prophet, OR because he is incapable of doing so as he has died.
Anyway, a lot more can be said about this whole grave worship thing whether Sufis or Shia or Sikh or whoever does it.
Apparently the Prophet (s.a.w.a) did it at Khaybar (when `Ali was back in Madinah ......)
This is a fabrication, and even if it happened it is counted as a miracle which is an exception and not a general rule.