Mustafa — Name Meaning in Islam

Root: ص-ف-و (ṣ-f-w), purity and clearness — water that has settled clear, and by extension the best part of anything. Muṣṭafā is the passive participle of the eighth-form verb iṣṭafā, "to choose out": the chosen one, the one selected as the purest of a thing. The ṭ in the middle is a spelling of the eighth form's t after an emphatic ṣ, which is why the word looks irregular.

From the same root: ṣafā (purity; and aṣ-Ṣafā, the hill of the running between Safa and Marwa), ṣafwa (the choicest part), iṣṭifāʾ (selection), ṣafī (a close friend, one made pure for you), and the names Safiyya, Safwan, Mustafa.

In the Qur'an: the verb is used of Allah's choosing — "Allah chose Adam, Nuh, the family of Ibrahim and the family of Imran above the worlds" (Al Imran 3:33), and "Allah chooses messengers from among the angels and from among people" (al-Hajj 22:75).

Who carried it: al-Muṣṭafā, the Chosen, is a title of the Prophet ﷺ rather than a name given to him at birth. Boys are named for the title, not for the word's dictionary sense.

Spellings: Mustafa, Moustafa, Mostafa, Mustafa (Turkish), Mustafa / Musthofa (Indonesian), Mustafa (Urdu), Moustapha (French/West African), مصطفى.

Pronunciation: muṣ-ṭa-FĀ. Both ṣ and ṭ are emphatic letters made with the back of the tongue raised, which darkens the vowels around them; the ending is alif maqṣūra, a long a.