Khuda

Khuda, Khoda (Persian: خدا‎‎, Kurdish: ‎Xweda, Xuda) 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. In Kurdish the word khu or xwe means myself and xweda or khuda means "created himself", which is also a name of god (Yazad) in Zoroastrianism. Yazad is derived from Ez, Yez which means "me" and ad or da meaning "create", as both words are common in Kurdish dialects and other Northwest Iranian languages including Parthian languages. It is the Middle Persian reflex of older Iranian forms such as Avestan x^va-dhata- "self-defined; autocrat", an epithet of Ahura Mazda. The Pashto term Xwdāi (خدای) is an Eastern Iranian cognate.