Āyatullah Sayyid Muḥammad Mujāhid (1180 – 1242 AH / 1801-1863 CE) – one of the greatest scholars during the time of Fatḥ-‘Alī Shāh (1772 – 1834 CE) – describes a dream ^[1] fabricated by the Akhbārīs against the Uṣūlīs as follows:

They say that a person saw ‘Allāmah Ḥillī (r) in his dream and asked him what had occurred with him and he replied: “If it wasn’t for me writing al-Alfayn and the Ziyārah of al-Ḥusayn (a), the verdicts (fatāwa) would have destroyed me.”

This is a false report and has been produced by the Akhbārīs, because some of them are enemies of the jurists to such an extent that Mullā Muḥammad Amīn Astarābādī – who is their founder – writes in his al-Fawāid al-Madaniyyah that: “Religion was destroyed twice, once when…they had gone to Saqīfa Banī Sā’idah to usurp the caliphate of Amīr al-Mu’minīn, and a second time when ‘Allāmah Ḥillī laid and strengthened the foundations of ijtihād.”

One should know that some of the Akhbārīs are such staunch enemies of the jurists that they have compared ‘Allāmah Ḥillī’s efforts of developing the system of ijtihād to usurpation of the caliphate. As it has been said and as you have heard, whenever a dream is fabricated you can tell how far it is from reality. God is aware of the punishment of those who fabricated and narrate fabrications – woe upon those who fabricate these stories, and woe upon those individuals who transmit these stories in gatherings repeatedly due to their lack of understanding and ignorance and do not fear God. Some of these people refer to themselves as scholars, and because they do not have the capacity to issue a verdict, they rely on fabricated dreams like these and say we should be precautious as giving a verdict is a very dangerous matter. Yes, this is the case. Anyone who knows they do not have the ability to issue a verdict, yet still issues one, such a person is included in three verses of the Quran that God has revealed ^[2]. Issuing a verdict is a dangerous matter and it is better for a person to abstain from it to the extent possible.

Source: Telegram Channel of Shaykh Rasūl Ja’fariyān https://t.me/jafarian1964/10329

[1] Unfortunately Shaykh Rasūl Ja’fariyān has not given a reference for this quotation. This message – or rather the opinion of Sayyid Mujāhid – was also critiqued by Muṣṭafa Bārgāhī and can be read here:نقدی-بر-نوشتار-جعل-خواب-از-طرف-اخباری/”>http://ijtihadnet.ir/نقدی-بر-نوشتار-جعل-خواب-از-طرف-اخباری/– he also reiterates not having seen this quotation in the works of Sayyid Muḥammad Mujāhid

[2] It is unclear to me what these three verses are. Perhaps the quotation is taken from a longer work where certain verses were previously quoted and Sayyid Mujāhid is referring to those.