Khuda

Khuda or Khoda () is the Iranian word for "Lord" or "God". Formerly, it was used in reference to Ahura Mazda (the god of Zoroastrianism) and today for God in Islam by only the Iranian, Kurdish and Afghan speakers, and as a loanword in Bengali, Urdu, Sindhi, Hindi and several South Asian languages.
== 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 Xwdāi (خدای) is a New Iranian cognate.
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.
== 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.
Edalji Kersâspji Antiâ, Pazend texts, Bombay 1909, pp. 335-337.
Application of khuda as "the Lord" (Ahura Mazda) 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 (meaning May God be your Guardian) is a parting phrase commonly used in Persian, Kurdish and Pashto, as well as in Urdu among South Asian Muslims.
It also exists as a loanword, used for God by Muslims in Bengali, Urdu, although the Arabic word Allah is becoming more common.
== See also ==
*Names of God
*The Lord
*Ishvara
== References ==
Category:Names of God in Islam
Category:Names of God in Zoroastrianism