What is meant by the Hadith: "Be ascetic in the world, and Allah will love you; be ascetic in what people possess, and people will love you"? Does asceticism in it contradict ambition and enjoying good things? What can be learned from it? And does Solomon's - upon him be peace - request for a kingdom contradict asceticism?

The meaning of zuhd (asceticism) is to abandon what is of no benefit in the hereafter and what is feared to be harmful to one's religion, not to abandon permissible pleasures. A person can be an ascetic and possess vast wealth, for true zuhd is for the worldly life not to be in the heart, but rather in the hand. And the supplication of Solomon (peace be upon him) for a kingdom that no one after him should possess was not out of desire for worldly life, but rather to be a miracle for him and a proof of his prophethood, and to demonstrate his high status with his Lord.