Study and Critique of Abraham Maslow's View on Self-actualization, Based on Islamic Sources

Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) is one of the pioneers in Humanistic psychology or the Third Force in psychology, which is based on critique of Freud's psychological system. One of the most important theories of Maslow, which has gained a special position in both psychology and educational sciences, is the Hierarchy of Needs. According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, there are five categories of needs from the bottom to the top or from basic needs to meta-needs and Self-actualization is at the top of this pyramid. This article tries to analyze and critique the concept of Maslow’s human self-actualization through a comparative study of the concept of self-actualization in Islamic sources – with emphasis on the holy Qur’an and Hadiths – and in Maslow’s viewpoint, by library research and data analysis method. The outcome of this study shows that according to Abraham Maslow, the concept of Self-actualization is based more on human material aspects, but Islamic teachings have viewed this concept in a higher level and connected self-actualization, in addition to material aspects, to transcendent aspects of human life.