Shaʾf is the burning of the qalb (the heart) with a pleasure felt by the muḥibb (the lover) in maḥabba (love). Similar states are lawʿa (melancholic love), lāʿij, and balbāl (they are all forms of passionate longing). The author of Tāj al-ʿArūs says: Shaʾafahu'l-ḥubb means 'love burned his heart.'
Abū Zayd says: It means his love made him ill. The verb shaʾafa comes from the verbal noun shuʾūf. Ḥasan al-Ḥasan read it as shaghafahā ḥubban (he loved her madly). (Rauḍa, 345)
shaf: Shaf means creation. Allah has sworn by shaf and witr. This is because the divine names are only realized through creation. The shafʿiyyat (evenness) of the rank of wāḥidiyya (the station of divine unity) must be added to the witrīyya (oddness) of the rank of aḥadiyya (the station of divine singularity) for the divine names to be manifested. (Kāshānī, 153; Jāmiʿ, 87)
Unlike witr, in shaf the realities of essences and names have become determined. (Kāshānī, 48; Jāmiʿ, 103)