Safa — Name Meaning in Islam

Root: ص-ف-و (ṣ-f-w), "to be clear, pure, unclouded". Ṣafā is purity in the sense of clarity — water with nothing suspended in it, a sky with nothing across it, a heart with nothing held in it.

From the same root: ṣafāʾ (clarity, serenity), ṣafwa (the choicest part of a thing, the cream), iṣṭafā (to select the purest — "Allah chose Adam and Nuh", Al Imran 3:33), Muṣṭafā (the chosen one, a title of the Prophet ﷺ), ṣafiyy and Ṣafiyya, taṣfiya (filtering).

The place: as-Safa is one of the two hills in Makkah between which pilgrims walk. The Qur'an names it directly: "Indeed as-Safa and al-Marwa are among the symbols of Allah" (al-Baqara 2:158). The hill is named from the same root, for its smooth bare rock.

Spellings: Safa, Safaa, Sefa / Safa (Turkish), Shafa is different, Safa (Indonesian), Safa (Urdu), Safaa (Maghrebi), صفا.

Pronunciation: ṣa-FAA — the ṣ is the emphatic ṣād, produced with the tongue lowered and the sound thickened; an ordinary English s makes it a different word.

Note: Turkish sefa — as in sefa geldiniz — comes from this same Arabic word, having travelled from "clarity" to "ease and pleasure".

Masculine counterpart: Safwan (صفوان), Safi; Safa itself is given to both in some regions.