Khuda


Khuda or Khoda is the Persian word for "Lord" or "God". Originally, it was used in reference to Ahura Mazda. Other Iranian languages also use it.

Etymology

The term derives from Middle Iranian terms xvatay, xwadag meaning "lord", "ruler", "master", appearing in written form in Parthian kwdy, in Middle Persian kwdy, and in Sogdian kwdy. It is the Middle Persian reflex of older Iranian forms such as Avestan xva-dhata- "self-defined; autocrat", an epithet of Ahura Mazda. The Pashto term Xdāi.
Prosaic usage is found for example in the Sassanid title katak-xvatay to denote the head of a clan or extended household or in the title of the 6th century Khwaday-Namag "Book of Lords", from which the tales of Kayanian dynasty as found in the Shahnameh derive.
In the hurrian texts from northern Mesopotamia, we find the verb, *xud, ḫud <ḫu-u-tu->, which means ‘to praise, to magnify’. At the same time, this term is "used in theophoric names: Ḫuti-b-Teššub, Ḫut-Teššub. The goddesses Ḫudena and Ḫudellurra, in charge of birth and fate..

Zoroastrianism

Semi-religious usage appears, for example, in the epithet zaman-i derang xvatay "time of the long dominion", as found in the Menog-i Khrad. The fourth and eighty-sixth entry of the Pazend prayer titled 101 Names of God, Harvesp-Khoda "Lord of All" and Khudawand "Lord of the Universe", respectively, are compounds involving Khuda.
Application of khuda as "the Lord" is represented in the first entry in the medieval Frahang-i Pahlavig.

Islamic usage

In Islamic times, the term came to be used for God in Islam, paralleling the Arabic name of God Al-Malik "Owner, King, Lord, Master".
The phrase Khuda Hafiz is a parting phrase commonly used in Persian, Kurdish, Bengali, Urdu and Pashto, as well as Punjabi among South Asian Muslims.
It also exists as a loanword, used for God in Turkish,