Shia and Sunni commentators have narrated that one day the Messenger of Allah (S) was in the company of Salman, Bilal, Ammar, Suhaib and some poor Muslims. Suddenly Aqra bin Habis Tamimi, Uyyana bin Hasan Farazi and other persons of doubtful faith arrived to meet the Prophet and looking at those poor companions in disdain they said: O Prophet of Allah, what will happen if you drive away these people from you and we adopt your company?
Because Arab nobles come to visit you and we don’t want them to see us in the company of these slaves. You can recall them after we go away from your assembly. According to another tradition some people visited His Eminence and seeing him, the company of those persons said: Have you selected only these from your community and you want us to follow them. Is it the same group with which the Almighty Allah has favored us?
Remove them from your company. If you drive them away, perhaps we will begin to obey and follow you. Some have narrated that since he very much desired them to become Muslim, he agreed to that and he called for Ali (a.s.) to write a document about this. Some narrate that the Prophet did not accept this proposal, and this is a stronger report. The following verse was revealed at that time:
وَلَا تَطْرُدِ الَّذِينَ يَدْعُونَ رَبَّهُمْ بِالْغَدَاةِ وَالْعَشِيِّ يُرِيدُونَ وَجْهَهُ ۖ مَا عَلَيْكَ مِنْ حِسَابِهِمْ مِنْ شَيْءٍ وَمَا مِنْ حِسَابِكَ عَلَيْهِمْ مِنْ شَيْءٍ فَتَطْرُدَهُمْ فَتَكُونَ مِنَ الظَّالِمِينَ. وَكَذٰلِكَ فَتَنَّا بَعْضَهُمْ بِبَعْضٍ لِيَقُولُوا أَهَٰؤُلَاءِ مَنَّ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِمْ مِنْ بَيْنِنَا ۗ أَلَيْسَ اللَّهُ بِأَعْلَمَ بِالشَّاكِرِينَ.
“And do not drive away those who call upon their Lord in the morning and the evening, they desire only His favor; neither are you answerable for any reckoning of theirs, nor are they answerable for any reckoning of yours, so that you should drive them away and thus be of the unjust. And thus do We try some of them by others so that they say: Are these they upon whom Allah has conferred benefit from among us? Does not Allah best know the grateful?”
