the delegation of ‘abdul qais: this tribe had two arrivals. the first was in the fifth year of al-hijra or before that date. munqidh bin haiyan, a member of that tribe, used to trade in madinah. so, as soon as he heard of islam when he had arrived in it for trading — that was after the migration — he embraced islam and carried a pledge from the prophet [pbuh] to his people who eventually became muslims too. thirteen or fourteen of them came to the prophet [pbuh] in one of the hurum months. it was then that they asked the prophet’s advice about the faith and drinks. their chief was al-ashaj al-usri, to whom the messenger of allâh [pbuh] said: "you have two qualities that allâh likes: they are deliberatenessandclemency."

their second arrival was in the year of delegations. they were forty men. al-jarud bin al-‘alâ’ al-‘abdi, who was christian but turned to be a good muslim, was one of that group. [explanation of sahih muslim by an-nawawi 1/33; fath al-bari 8/85,86]