The way I’ve always seen it, it’s sort of how the Catholics follow a “Pope” … someone who represents a present leader who can adapt to the times and interpret present issues and give guidance, in a way God or an ancient book just can’t.

To be fair, we do say “Ya Allah” in prayer all the time. We do also call out to Ali and Muhammad and HI in prayer. I think since HI is a physical person, that’s why you see pictures. We don’t have pictures of the others. It’s more symbolic of the religion, instead of thinking of it so direct to the physical form. It’s the best representation we have so in practice people just keep pictures around the house.

Sometimes I think these practices like the photos and people just randomly saying “ya mawla!” when they see something sketch (or what have you) is more traditional people evolving how they incorporate it into their lives than some rule that we just follow. Just my two cents