An ascetic life does not mean that a man should annihilate desires and annihilate himself. That he should abandon wearing good clothes and consider wearing torn or patched garments to be the highest standard of life.
If that were so, then all the factories and small workshops of the world would shut down, and millions upon millions of people would become hunger-stricken skeletons. Allah did not bring forth resources from the womb of the earth so that they be disregarded, so that they are not used.
If eating coarse and dry food itself is the ascension of life, then there would remain no need for rainfall. The earth would become barren.
For the adornment of the earth, Allah the Exalted has created flowers of many colors, leaves, trees, fruits, mountain ranges, and waterfalls.
By Qalandar Baba Auliya RA from Book: Etiquettes of Seekers