Khuda or Khoda ( خدا ) is the Pashto word for "guide" (from the Pashto verb "khodal" which means, to lead, or to guide) and has come to be used as "Lord" or "(monotheistic) God" in both Pashto and Persian. Formerly used for Ahura Mazda, today mostly of God in Islam by not just Pashto and Persian speakers, but also by Urdu speakers as well. The term appears to have evolved in to an honorific.
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The term derives from Middle Iranian xvatay, xwadag meaning "lord", "ruler", "master" (written as Parthian kwdy, Middle Persian kwdy, Sogdian kwdy, etc.). It is the Middle Iranian reflex of Avestan xva-dhata- "self-defined; autocrat", an epithet of Ahura Mazda.. The Pashto cognate is Khwdai (خدای).
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 kings as found in the Shahnameh ("Book of kings") derive.
Semi-religious usage appears for example in the epithet zaman-i derang xvatay "time of the long dominion", as found in the Menog-i Khirad. The fourth and eighty-sixth entry of the Pazand prayer titled Sad-o-yak nam-i-khoda ("101 Names of God"), reading, Harvesp-Khoda "Lord of All" and Khudawand "Lord of the Universe", respectively, are compounds involving Khuda.[1] Application of khuda as "the Lord" (Ahura Mazda) is represented in the first entry in the medieval Frahang-i Pahlavig.
In Islamic times the term came to be used for God in Islam, paralleling the Arabic name of God Al-Malik "King, Lord, Master".
The phrase Khuda Hafiz (meaning May God be your Guardian) is a parting phrase commonly used in Persian, Urdu, and Kurdish, as well as amongst Pakistanis, Afghans and Iranians.
It also exists as a loanword, used for God by Muslims in Urdu, although the Arabic word Allah is becoming more common.[2]
The word is frequently used, in songs in Bollywood movies, in non-religious context.[3]