Al-Tabarsi: Seeking Aid, Rescue, Deliverance by Supplicating Directly to the Messenger and to Alee Seeking aid from the living or the dead in that in which they have no power or capability is a clear instance of shirk (polytheism, assocation of partners with Allaah in worship), the greatest of all sins. The books of the Shia are full of this and it resembles the way of the extreme Sufis. The Shia and Sufis have a historical connection with each other and grave worship entered the Sufis through