Imam 'Ali (AS) wrote in one of his letters to al-Ashtar, when he appointed him governor of Egypt, 'Do not discontinue a good practice that the pioneers of this community acted upon, by virtue of which there was general unity and through which the subjects prospered. Do not innovate a practice that will infringe on these earlier practices in any way, for then the reward of those who had laid them down will continue, whereas you will be the one to bear the burden of breaching them.'