Khuda (, ) or Khoda is the

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

word for

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

. Originally, it was used as a noun in reference to

Ahura Mazda Ahura Mazda (; ; or , ),The former is the New Persian rendering of the Avestan form, while the latter derives from Middle Persian. also known as Horomazes (),, is the only creator deity and Sky deity, god of the sky in the ancient Iranian ...

(the name of the God in

Zoroastrianism Zoroastrianism ( ), also called Mazdayasnā () or Beh-dīn (), is an Iranian religions, Iranian religion centred on the Avesta and the teachings of Zoroaster, Zarathushtra Spitama, who is more commonly referred to by the Greek translation, ...

Iranian languages The Iranian languages, also called the Iranic languages, are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau. The Iranian langu ...

Turkic languages The Turkic languages are a language family of more than 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia (Siberia), and West Asia. The Turkic langua ...

, and many

Indo-Aryan languages The Indo-Aryan languages, or sometimes Indic languages, are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. As of 2024, there are more than 1.5 billion speakers, primarily concentrated east ...

employ the word. Today, it is a word that is largely used in the non-Arabic

Islamic world The terms Islamic world and Muslim world commonly refer to the Islamic community, which is also known as the Ummah. This consists of all those who adhere to the religious beliefs, politics, and laws of Islam or to societies in which Islam is ...

, with wide usage from its native country Iran, along with Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. and some Muslim-majority areas of India, as well as Southern and Southwestern Russia.

Etymology

The term derives from

Middle Iranian The Iranian languages, also called the Iranic languages, are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau. The Iranian language ...

terms ''xvatay, xwadag'' meaning "lord", "ruler", "master", appearing in written form in

Parthian Parthian may refer to: Historical * Parthian people * A demonym "of Parthia", a region of north-eastern of Greater Iran * Parthian Empire (247 BC – 224 AD) * Parthian language, a now-extinct Middle Iranian language * Parthian shot, an archery sk ...

''kwdy'', in

Middle Persian Middle Persian, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg ( Inscriptional Pahlavi script: , Manichaean script: , Avestan script: ) in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasania ...

''kwdy'', and in Sogdian ''kwdy''. It is the Middle Persian reflex of older Iranian forms such as

Avestan Avestan ( ) is the liturgical language of Zoroastrianism. It belongs to the Iranian languages, Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family and was First language, originally spoken during the Avestan period, Old ...

''x^va-dhata-'' "self-defined;

autocrat Autocracy is a form of government in which absolute power is held by the head of state and government, known as an autocrat. It includes some forms of monarchy and all forms of dictatorship, while it is contrasted with democracy and feudalism. ...

", an epithet of

. The

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish language ** Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) **Central Kurdish (Sorani) **Southern Kurdish ** Laki Kurdish *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern ...

term ''Xwedê'' (خودێ) and the

Pashto Pashto ( , ; , ) is an eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family, natively spoken in northwestern Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan. It has official status in Afghanistan and the Pakistani province of Khyb ...

term ''Xdāi'' (خدۍ) are both variants of this. Prosaic usage is found for example in the

Sassanid The Sasanian Empire (), officially Eranshahr ( , "Empire of the Iranian peoples, Iranians"), was an List of monarchs of Iran, Iranian empire that was founded and ruled by the House of Sasan from 224 to 651. Enduring for over four centuries, th ...

title ''katak-xvatay'' to denote the head of a clan or extended household or in the title of the 6th century ''

Khwaday-Namag ''Khwadāy-Nāmag'' (New Persian: ; ) is the hypothetical title of a lost Middle Persian history of Iran from the Sasanian era. It presumably encompassed the legendary and mythical history of Iran from the beginning of time until the Sasanian pe ...

'' "Book of Lords", from which the tales of

Kayanian dynasty The Kayanians (; also Kays, Kayanids, Kaianids, Kiyani, Kayani, or Kiani) are a legendary dynasty of Persian/Iranian tradition and folklore which supposedly ruled after the Pishdadians, each of whom held the title Kay (such as Kay Khosrow), me ...

as found in the ''

Shahnameh The ''Shahnameh'' (, ), also transliterated ''Shahnama'', is a long epic poem written by the Persian literature, Persian poet Ferdowsi between and 1010 CE and is the national epic of Greater Iran. Consisting of some 50,000 distichs or couple ...

'' derive.

Zoroastrian usage

Semi-religious usage appears, for example, in the epithet ''zaman-i derang xvatay'' "

time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

of the long dominion", as found in the ''

Menog-i Khrad The ''Mēnōg-ī Khrad'' () or ''Spirit of Wisdom'' is one of the most important secondary texts in Zoroastrianism written in Middle Persian. Also transcribed in Pazend as ''Minuy-e X(e/a)rad'' and in New Persian ''Minu-ye Xeræd'', the text is a ...

''. The fourth and eighty-sixth entry of the

Pazend Pazend () or Pazand (; ) is one of the writing systems used for the Middle Persian language. It was based on the Avestan alphabet, a phonetic alphabet originally used to write Avestan, the language of the Avesta, the primary sacred texts of Zoroa ...

prayer titled ''

101 Names of God In Zoroastrianism, there are 101 names and titles used to refer to Ahura Mazda. The list is preserved in Persian, Pazend, and Gujarati. The names are often taken during ''Baj'' ( ceremonial prayer) as part of Yasna while continuously sprink ...

'', ''Harvesp-Khoda'' "Lord of All" and ''Khudawand'' "Lord of the Universe", respectively, are compounds involving ''Khuda''. Application of ''khoda'' as "''the'' Lord" (

) is represented in the first entry in the medieval ''

Frahang-i Pahlavig ''Frahang-ī Pahlavīg'' (Middle Persian: 𐭯𐭥𐭧𐭭𐭢 𐭯𐭧𐭫𐭥𐭩𐭪 "Pahlavi dictionary") is the title of an anonymous dictionary of mostly Aramaic logograms with Middle Persian translations (in Pahlavi script) and translit ...

''.

Islamic usage

In Islamic times, the term came to be used for

God in Islam In Islam, God (, contraction of , ) is seen as the Creator god, creator and God the Sustainer, sustainer of the universe, who God and eternity, lives eternally. God is conceived as a perfect, Tawhid, singular, immortal, omnipotent, and omnisc ...

, paralleling the Arabic

name of God There are various names of God, many of which enumerate the various qualities of a Supreme Being. The English word ''god'' (and its equivalent in other languages) is used by multiple religions as a noun to refer to different deities, or speci ...

''Al-Malik'' "Owner, King, Lord, Master". The phrase

Khoda Hafez Khuda Hafiz (), Pashto: خداۍ حافظ (khuday hafiz), (''Khoda Hafej''), , , (''Xudā Hāfiz''), Kurdish: , (kẖwạ ḥạfy̰z), ), is a common parting phrase originating in the Persian language. It is most commonly used in Iran, Afgha ...

(meaning ''May God be your Guardian'') is a

parting phrase A valediction ( derivation from Latin ''vale dicere'', "to say farewell"), parting phrase, or complimentary close in American English, is an expression used to say farewell, especially a word or phrase used to end a letter or message,

commonly used in across the

Greater Iran Greater Iran or Greater Persia ( ), also called the Iranosphere or the Persosphere, is an expression that denotes a wide socio-cultural region comprising parts of West Asia, the South Caucasus, Central Asia, South Asia, and East Asia (specifica ...

region, in languages including

Azeri Azeri or Azeri Turk may refer to: * Azeri people, an ethnic group also known as Azerbaijanis * Citizens of Azerbaijan * Azeri language, the modern-day Turkic language * Old Azeri, an extinct Iranian language * Azeri Turk (journal), Academic jour ...

, and

. Furthermore, the term is also employed as a parting phrase in many languages across the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...

including

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

Punjabi Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to: * Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan * Punjabi language * Punjabis, Punjabi people * Punjabi dialects and languages Punjabi may also refer to: * Punjabi (horse), a ...

, Deccani, Sindhi,

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

and

Kashmiri Kashmiri may refer to: * People or things related to the Kashmir Valley or the broader region of Kashmir * Kashmiris, an ethnic group native to the Kashmir Valley * Kashmiri language, the language of the Kashmiris ethnic group People with the nam ...

. It also exists as a popular

loanword A loanword (also a loan word, loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language (the recipient or target language), through the process of borrowing. Borrowing is a metaphorical term t ...

, used for

Turkish Turkish may refer to: * Something related to Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities in the former Ottoman Empire * The w ...

(''Hüdâ''),

(খোদা),

Hindi-Urdu Hindustani is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in North India and Pakistan as the lingua franca of the region. It is also spoken by the Deccani-speaking community in the Deccan plateau. Hindustani is a pluricentric language with two standa ...

(ख़ुदा, خُدا), Kazakh (''Xuda/Quda/Qudaı''), Uzbek (''Xudo''),

Tatar Tatar may refer to: Peoples * Tatars, an umbrella term for different Turkic ethnic groups bearing the name "Tatar" * Volga Tatars, a people from the Volga-Ural region of western Russia * Crimean Tatars, a people from the Crimea peninsula by the B ...

(''Ходай''),

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

( along with ,), and other

and

Christian usage

In the

, Christians who speak

translate the word "God" as "Khuda" (خُدا) as God in Urdu is called Khuda, Although even Hindi speaking christians sometimes uses Khuda as a term to refer to God, though his personal name is rendered as " Yahovah" (यहोवा, یہوّاہ) or " Yahvah" (यहवा, یہوہ). Bible translations into Hindi and Urdu use these terms.

References

{{Reflist Names of God in Islam Names of God in Zoroastrianism ur:خدا

Etymology

Zoroastrian usage

Islamic usage

Christian usage

See also

References