Khuda

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 Kurdish term Xwedê (خودێ) and the Pashto term Xdāi (خدۍ) are both variants of this. 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. == Zoroastrian usage ==

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 khoda 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 Hafez (meaning May God be your Guardian) is a parting phrase commonly used in across the Greater Iran region, in languages including Persian, Pashto, Azeri, and Kurdish. Furthermore, the term is also employed as a parting phrase in many languages across the Indian subcontinent including Urdu, Punjabi, Deccani, Sindhi, Hindi, Bengali, and Kashmiri. It also exists as a popular loanword, used for God in Turkish (Hüdâ), Bengali (খোদা), Hindi-Urdu (ख़ुदा, خُدا), Kazakh (Xuda/Quda/Qudaı), Uzbek (Xudo), Tatar (Ходай), Chinese ( along with ,), and other Indo-Aryan languages and Turkic languages. == Christian usage ==

In the Indian subcontinent, Christians who speak Hindi-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. == See also ==