It is a unique feature of Islam that it does not divide life into watertight compartments of matter and spirit! It stands not for life-denial, but for life-fulfilment.
Islam does not teach monasticism. In fact a tradition says:
لاَ رَهْبَانِيَّةَ فِي الإِسْلاَمِ
“There is no (room for) monasticism in Islam” [This tradition has been reported in Majma’ul Bayan under رهب as also in al-Nihayah of Ibn Kathir]
It does not ask man to avoid material things. It holds that spiritual elevation is to be achieved by living piously in the rough and tumble of life and not by renouncing the world. The Quran advises us to supplicate and pray as follows:
وَمِنْهُم مَّن يَقُولُ رَبَّنَآ ءَاتِنَا فِى ٱلدُّنْيَا حَسَنَةً وَفِى ٱلْـَٔاخِرَةِ حَسَنَةً وَقِنَا عَذَابَ ٱلنَّارِ
… Our Lord! Give us good in this world and good in the Hereafter, and defend us from the torment of the Fire! (Quran 2:201)
The Prophet ﷺ also said: [the meaning of which is]

A Muslim who lives in the midst of society and bears with patience the afflictions that come to him is better than the one who shuns society and cannot bear any wrong done to him.

He also directed Muslims to keep the balance by saying:
Keep fast and break it (at the proper time) and stand in prayer and devotion (in the night) and have sleep – for your body has its rights over you, and your eyes rights over you, and your wife has a claim upon you, and the person who pays a visit to you has a claim upon you.

Thus Islam does not admit any separation between “material” and “moral”, “mundane” and “spiritual” life. Islam teaches us that moral and material powers must be welded together.

Spiritual salvation can be achieved by using material resources for the good of man in the service of just ends, and not by living a life of asceticism or by running away from the challenges of life!

Islam aims at establishing equilibrium between these two aspects of life – the material and the spiritual. It says that everything in the world is for man – but man himself is for the service of a higher purpose.

This is the establishment of a moral and just order, so as to fulfil the Will of Allah. Its teachings cater for the spiritual as well as the temporal needs of man.

Islam urges man to purify his soul and to give supremacy to virtue over vice. Thus, Islam simply stands for the middle path and the goal of producing a moral man in the service of a just society.