The Inverted Pyramid of Needs

Maslow's hierarchy of needs, the pyramid, is well known. Its foundation, the bottom of the pyramid, is the first human need that has to be satisfied: the physiological needs. That's the most important need for humans. And then what's after that? Psychological, and then the third, social — physiological on the bottom, then social, then spiritual, and the peak is self-actualisation.

So first of all, as a human being, a person wants to satisfy the necessary physiological needs, which are food and shelter. After that, a person wants to have friends, have a social life, have belonging and association — those are the social needs. And then there are the spiritual needs. So after the physiological needs and the social needs are achieved, a person starts thinking about religion, according to Maslow. Finally there is self-actualisation, which is at the top of the pyramid.

But according to Ibrāhīm (peace be upon him), the pyramid is inverted. The first thing that he asked for was not food and drink, or shelter. We would assume that Ibrāhīm (peace be upon him), since he left them in a valley with no cultivation, would first ask for his family to be provided with food, for their survival. But Ibrāhīm (peace be upon him) started his duʿāʾ by saying: Rabbanā li-yuqīmū al-ṣalāh — "Our Lord, so that they may establish prayer." So the first need that he asked for, the first thing he mentioned, was the spiritual need: ṣalāh, iqāmat al-ṣalāh, establishing the prayer.

And then he said: "And put their love in the hearts of people" — wa-jʿal afʾidatan min al-nāsi tahwī ilayhim — make people love them. So he's asking Allah (swt) to draw people to his family, and to make them love his family. So he's asking for the social needs. And then finally he said: "Then provide them with fruits." So Ibrāhīm (peace be upon him) started by asking for ṣalāh, the spiritual need, and then the social needs, and then the physiological needs. But even when he asked Allah (swt) to provide them with fruits, he connected it to ʿibādah, and said: "So that they may be grateful." So even when he was asking Allah to provide them with worldly things, he was still connecting it to religion — give them fruit so that they will be grateful to Him.

And that is true self-actualisation: when Allah becomes everything for a person. When eating, when drinking, when sleeping, everything is being done for Allah. That is true tranquillity, and that is the self-actualisation that neither Maslow nor anybody else achieved — except the anbiyāʾ of Allah and the awliyāʾ of Allah (azza wa jall).