Outlook of Iqbal Lahori and Baruch Spinoza on “Liberty”

Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) a Dutch philosopher and one of the greatest rationalist thinkers of the seventeenth century is regarded as the path finder of religious criticism and similarly, an enlightenment thinker of the seventeenth century. Baruch Spinoza believes that liberty is conjoined with divinity. This liberty works involuntarily. Wherever I have choice, I am not free. Man- made laws have limitations which can defy his order. Necessity is the effect of his nature and liberty is absolute. The absolute liberty is divine. God alone stands purely on the necessity of the nature of his power and necessity works on the lines of power. Liberty means looking at all the objects and phenomenon as necessity. From the point of view of Iqbal Lahori, liberty is the way such as social or cultural forces that on the basis of wisdom seeks to stop man. He in his works shows the compatibility with freedom. He has discussed individual liberty vis a vis collective freedom and man in relations to government and society which form one of the directions of the outlook of Iqbal on liberty. The present paper aims to deal with the similarity and contrast between the thought process of Iqbal and Baruch Spinoza on liberty. The paper is narrative-analytical and draws materials from library and documents.