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Khuda (Persian:خُدا,romanized: xudā,Classical Persian pronunciation[xu.ˈdaː]), orKhoda (xodâ,Iranian Persian pronunciation[xo.ˈdɒː]) is thePersian word forGod. Originally, it was used as a noun in reference toAhura Mazda (the name of the God inZoroastrianism).Iranian languages,Turkic languages, and manyIndo-Aryan languages employ the word.[1] Today, it is a word that is largely used in the non-ArabicIslamic world[citation needed] forAllah; with wide usage from its native countryIran, along withAfghanistan,Tajikistan,Uzbekistan,Turkmenistan,Kyrgyzstan,Kazakhstan,Turkey,Azerbaijan,Bangladesh andPakistan; and manyMuslim-majority areas of India, parts ofEurope under theOttoman Empire (especially theBalkans, such asBosnia and Herzegovina,Albania andKosovo), as well as Armenia, plusSouthern and Southwestern Russia.[2][3]
The term derives fromMiddle Iranian termsxvatay, xwadag meaning "lord", "ruler", "master", appearing in written form inParthiankwdy, inMiddle Persiankwdy, and inSogdiankwdy. It is the Middle Persian reflex of older Iranian forms such asAvestanxva-dhata- "self-defined;autocrat", an epithet ofAhura Mazda. TheKurdish termXwedê (خودێ) and thePashto termXdāi (خدۍ) are both variants of this.
Prosaic usage is found for example in theSassanid titlekatak-xvatay to denote the head of a clan or extended household or in the title of the 6th centuryKhwaday-Namag "Book of Lords", from which the tales ofKayanian dynasty as found in theShahnameh derive.
Semi-religious usage appears, for example, in the epithetzaman-i derang xvatay "time of the long dominion", as found in theMenog-i Khrad. The fourth and eighty-sixth entry of thePazend prayer titled101 Names of God,Harvesp-Khoda "Lord of All" andKhudawand "Lord of the Universe", respectively, are compounds involvingKhuda.[4]Application ofkhoda as "the Lord" (Ahura Mazda) is represented in the first entry in the medievalFrahang-i Pahlavig.
In Islamic times, the term came to be used forGod in Islam, paralleling the Arabicname of GodAl-Malik "Owner, King, Lord, Master".
The phraseKhoda Hafez (meaningMay God be your Guardian) is aparting phrase commonly used in across theGreater Iran region, in languages includingPersian,Pashto,Azeri, andKurdish. Furthermore, the term is also employed as a parting phrase in many languages across theIndian subcontinent includingUrdu,Punjabi,Deccani,Sindhi,Hindi,Bengali andKashmiri.[5][2]
It also exists as a popularloanword, used forGod inTurkish (Hüdâ),[6]Bengali (খোদা),[7]Hindi-Urdu (ख़ुदा, خُدا),[1]Kazakh (Xuda/Quda/Qudaı),Uzbek (Xudo),Tatar (Ходай),Chinese (Chinese:胡达 or 胡達;pinyin:húdá[8] along withChinese:胡大;pinyin:húdà,[9]), and otherIndo-Aryan languages andTurkic languages.
In theIndian subcontinent, Christians who speakHindi-Urdu translate the word "God" as "Khuda" (ख़ुदा, خُدا), though his personal name is rendered as "Yahovah" (यहोवा, یہوّاہ) or "Yahvah" (यहवा, یہوہ).Bible translations into Hindi and Urdu use these terms.[10][11]
Outside Pakistan, "Khuda hafiz" is also known to be used in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and among Muslims in India.
