حِجْرٌ

Full Definition

حِجْرٌ and حُجْرٌ and حَجْرٌ , of which the first is the most chaste, and and حَاجُورٌ [and ], Forbidden, prohibited, unlawful, inviolable, or sacred. Each of the first three forms occurs in different readings of the Kur vi. 139. You say, هٰذَا حِجْرٌ عَلَيْكَ This is forbidden, or unlawful, to thee. In the time of paganism, a man meeting another whom he feared, in a sacred month, used to say, حِجْرًا , meaning It is rigorously forbidden to thee [to commit an act of hostility against me] in this month: and the latter, thereupon, would abstain from any aggression against him: and so, on the day of resurrection, the polytheists, when they see the punishment, will say to the angels, thinking that it will profit them: but Az says that I' Ab and his companions explain these words [occurring in the Kur xxv. 24] otherwise, i. e., as said by the angels, and meaning, the joyful annunciation is forbidden to be made to you: and accord. to El-Hasan, the former word will be said by the sinners, and the latter is said by God, meaning it will be forbidden to them to be granted refuge or protection as they used to be in their former life in the world: but Az adds, it is more proper to regard the two words as composing one saying: and the latter word is a corroborative of the former, like مَائِتٌ in the expression مَوْتٌ مَائِتٌ. The same words in the Kur xxv. 55 signify A strong mutual repugnance, or incongruity; as though each said what one says who seeks refuge or protection from another: or, as some say, a defined limit. A man says to another, “ Dost thou so and so, O such a one?” and the latter replies حِجْرًا, or , or , meaning [I pray for] preservation, and acquitment, from this thing; a meaning reducible to that of prohibition, and of a thing that is prohibited. The Arabs say, on the occasion of a thing that they disapprove, لَهُ, with damm, meaning, May it be averted.
2 Homeyd Ibn-Thowr says, فَهَمَمْتُ أَنْ أَغْشَى إِلَيْهَا مَحْجَرًا وَلَمِثْلُهَا يُغْشَى إِلَيْهِ المَحْجَرُ meaning, And I purposed doing to her a forbidden action: and verily the like of her is one to whom that which is forbidden is done. is also explained as signifying حُرْمَةٌ; [app. meaning a thing from which one is bound to refrain, from a motive of respect or reverence;] and to have this meaning in the verse above.
3 Also, the first of these words, Any حَائِط [i. e. garden, or walled garden of palm-trees,] which one prohibits [to the public].
4 And الحِجْرُ That [space] which is comprised by [the curved wall called] the حَطِيم, which encompasses the Kaabeh on the north [or rather north-west] side; on the side of the spout: or the حطيم [itself], which encompasses the Kaabeh on the side of the spout. [It is applied to both of these in the present day; but more commonly to the former.]
5 Also, حِجْرٌ, The anterior pudendum of a man and of a woman; and so حَجْرٌ : the latter the more chaste.
6 A mare; the female of the horse: and a mare kept for breeding; as though her womb were forbidden to all but generous horses: but in the latter sense the sing. is scarcely ever used; though its pl., the first of the following forms, is used to signify mares kept for breeding: حِجْرَةٌ , as a sing., is said by F and others to be a barbarism: it occurs in a trad.; but perhaps the ة is there added to assimilate it to بَغْلَةٌ, with which it is there coupled: the pl. [of pauc.] is أَحْجَارٌ and [of mult.] حُجُورٌ and حُجُورَةٌ. A poet says, إِذَا خَرِسَ الفَحْلُ وَسْطَ الحُجُورِ وَصَاحَ الكِلَابُ وَعَقَّ الوَلَدْ When the stallion, seeing the army and the gleaming swords, is mute in the midst of the mares kept for breeding, and does not look towards them, and the dogs bark at their masters, because of the change of their appearances, and children behave undutifully to their mothers whom fear diverts from attending to them.
7 Relationship [that prohibits marriage]; nearness with respect to kindred.
8 Understanding, intelligence, intellect, mind, or reason: so in the Kur lxxxix. 4: thus called because it forbids that which it does not behoove one to do. One says, فِى ذٰلِكَ عِبْرَةٌ لِذِي حِجْرٍ In that is an admonition to him who possesses understanding, &c.

def.2 See also حَجُرٌ, in three places.

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