A man went to see Ameer al-Momineen (a.s) and said: “What does tradition, innovation, union and deviation mean?” Ameer al-Momineen (a.s) replied: “Tradition refers to the way of living that God's Prophet (a.s) has prescribed. Innovation refers to ways that have been proposed after the Prophet. Union refers to the assembly of a group of people who believe in God, even if they are few in number, and deviation refers to following what is wrong, even if the number of such followers is large.”