Ata’ narrated from Ibn Abbas that they were in hardship and famine until Hashim brought them together for the two journeys. They would divide their profits between the poor and the rich, until their poor were like their rich.

Al-Kalbi said: (1) Hashim ibn Abd Manaf was the first to bring wheat (2) from Syria and to send camels there. Concerning him, the poet says: (3)

“Tell the one who seeks magnanimity and generosity:
Why have you not passed by the House of Abd Manaf?
Why did you not visit them, seeking their hospitality?
They would have spared you hardship and destitution.

They enrich others—and no benefactors like them are to be found;
they are the ones who say, ‘Come, O guests!’
They mingle their poor with their rich,
until their poor are as well provided for as the self-sufficient.

They fulfill every true promise,
and undertake the journey of accustomed security.
Amr al-Ula (4) broke tharid for his people,
when the men of Makkah were famine-stricken and emaciated. (5)

He established for himself and his people two journeys:
the journey of winter and the journey of summer.”

Al-Dahhak, al-Rabi‘, and Sufyan said: “And made them safe from fear” means from the fear of leprosy; thus leprosy does not afflict them in their town.