Needs

Ibn Asaakir narrates:

قالت جارية سكينة لسكينة بالباب رجل يقول لي حاجة قالت ما حاجته فذهبت ثم عادت قالت يقول لي حاجة حتى فعلت ذلك مرة أو مرتين أو أكثر قالت فلعلها حاجة الديك إلى الدجاجة

A maid said to the lady owner of the house: “There is a man at the door, who keeps saying: “I have a need.”
The lady said: “What does he need?”
The maid went back and forth, but the man kept repeating: “I have a need.”
So, she said: “Perhaps he means: the need of a rooster for a hen.”

[“Tarikh Dimashq”, 69/208].

So, then it became a proverb, when someone needs something desperately:

لنا إليه حاجة كحاجة الديك إلى الدجاجة
‘We have a need (haajah),
like the need (haajah)
of a rooster for a hen (dijaajah).”