Hajr is an action meaning a noun like slaughter and grinding. The masculine and feminine, singular and plural are equal in being described by it, because its ruling is like that of names and not attributes. Al-Hasan and Qatadah read 'Hajr' with a pronounced 'h' (Ḥ).

Ibn Abbas read: 'Haraj', which is from constriction. When they designated certain things from their crops and livestock for their idols, they said: 'No one may eat it except whom we wish,' meaning the servants of the idols, and men over women. And there are livestock whose backs are prohibited, which are the bahirah, the sa'ibah, and the hawm. And livestock on which they do not mention the name of Allah at the time of slaughter, but they mention the names of the idols upon them. It is said: they do not perform pilgrimage on them nor do they proclaim the talbiyah on their backs. The meaning is:

They divided their livestock and said: 'These are the livestock of Hajr, and the livestock whose backs are prohibited, and these are the livestock on which the name of Allah is not mentioned.' They made them categories according to their whims, and they attributed that categorization to Allah, falsely. They did all of this in a manner of falsehood—glorified and exalted is He above what the wrongdoers say, greatly exalted. It is in the accusative case as a purpose, or a state, or a confirmed source, because their saying is in the meaning of falsehood.