Discover the meaning of the term Al-tḥjyr (تحجير) in Islamic vocabulary.
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Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 3 min readLinguistically: al-tahjir or al-ihtijar. Technically: placing markers of stones and the like at the bounds of land, to secure possession of it and bar others from reviving it. Ibn 'Arafa said: 'Iyad said: it is erecting bounds around what one intends to revive (Sharh Fath al-Qadir 8/138-139; al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya 5/386; Sharh Hudud Ibn 'Arafa, p. 537).
Placing stones and the like in one's land as markers, to bound it and deny it to others.
Masdar. In the Mejelle (art. 1052): placing stones and the like at the borders of one man's lands, so that no other lay his hand upon them. Al-hajr: prevention; in the Law: barring a man from disposing of his property (Ibn Qudama); legally: barring the validity of a verbal act on account of minority, insanity, or slavery (Ibn 'Abidin); among the jurists: a specified prevention, of a specified person, from a specified disposition or its validity (Ibn 'Abidin); with the Malikis: a legal attribute obligating the barring of its subject from the validity of a disposition beyond his capacity, or from disposing of more than a third of his property. In the Mejelle (art. 941): the barring of a specified person from his verbal disposition; that person, after the interdiction, is called mahjur. Al-hijr: the enclosure; plural: hijar and hujur; in the noble hadith: "Whoever sleeps upon the roof of a house without an enclosure has discharged liability"; the cause of discharging liability for his debt or the blood-money of his wounds is that he exposed himself to ruin and did not guard against it. The house; in the Quran: "And your stepdaughters who are within your enclosures (hujur), born of your wives with whom you have consummated" (al-Nisa' 4:23); kinship; the lap; protection; one says: "he is within his hijr", that is, within his shelter and protection; reason; in the Quran: "Is there an oath in one possessed of reason (dhi hijr)?" (al-Fajr 89:5); the forbidden; in the Quran: "The day they see the angels there will be no good news for the guilty, and they will say: a barred barrier (hijran mahjuran)" (al-Furqan 25:22), that is, forbidden of approach, deeming that it would profit them; what the hatim encloses, the Ka'ba's north side; the garment. Hajala: hajjalana: to walk on one foot raising the other, or on both but hopping. Hajjala: he limped; "he proclaimed his affair": he made it famous; from it: "the day of Aghar muhajjal": famous; in ablution: washing part of the forearm with the hand, and part of the shin with the foot.