What could the maintenance required light mean on a Honda civic 2001?

Depending upon your mileage it could mean any number of things, first thing I would do is check with a dealer to see if it is normal for it to have come one at whatever mileage you first noticed it at. If you hit around 100,000 miles it may be telling you to get a new timing belt. Other Japanese car auto specialists can also tell you pretty easily what it COULD be and will offer you a diagnostic service for whatever their one hour labor rate is most likely. Sometimes they will be more or less.