Originally Posted by - Qatada -

There's nothing wrong with following scholars, since they are alive in this world and we can benefit from them.

Again, there are many narrations where the companions asked the Messenger of Allah to pray for rain. Even many other prayers, however - after he passed away - they stopped asking him, and from the hadith quoted above [from sahih al bukhari] - it becomes clear that they stopped asking him to pray for them after he passed away. That was their clear understanding of the issue.

So it becomes clear that its not forbidden to ask a pious person - who is alive in this world to pray for you. However, once he has passed away - you should not ask them to pray for you since you are calling to them in a supernatural way and expecting them to hear you, although they are in another life now [i.e. the barzakh - the barrier between this life and the next.]

Originally Posted by - Qatada -

Look at what Ibn Abbas, the cousin of the Prophet said:

Sahih Al Bukhari Volume 6, Book 60, Number 442: Narrated Ibn Abbas:

All the idols which were worshipped by the people of Noah were worshipped by the Arabs later on. As for the idol Wadd, it was worshipped by the tribe of Kalb at Daumat-al-Jandal; Suwa' was the idol of (the tribe of) Murad and then by Ban, Ghutaif at Al-Jurf near Saba; Yauq was the idol of Hamdan, and Nasr was the idol of Himyr, the branch of Dhi-al-Kala.'

The names (of the idols) formerly belonged to some pious men of the people of Noah, and when they died Satan inspired their people to (prepare and place idols at the places where they used to sit, and to call those idols by their names. The people did so, but the idols were not worshipped till those people (who initiated them) had died and the origin of the idols had become obscure, whereupon people began worshipping them.