Quran Universe
15:10

وَلَقَدۡ أَرۡسَلۡنَا مِن قَبۡلِكَ فِي شِيَعِ ٱلۡأَوَّلِينَ

Walaqad arsalna min qablika fee shiyaAAi alawwaleena

And We had certainly sent [messengers] before you, [O Muhammad], among the sects of the former peoples.

Word by word
  1. وَلَقَدۡAnd certainly
  2. أَرۡسَلۡنَاWe (had) sent
  3. مِنbefore you
  4. قَبۡلِكَbefore you
  5. فِيin
  6. شِيَعِthe sects
  7. ٱلۡأَوَّلِينَ(of) the former (people)
Al-Hijr · 15:10Makkah

You are not the first messenger sent.

Comfort for the Prophet ﷺ

A long line
earlier peoplesmany communities
were sent
messengersbefore you
and now
the Prophet ﷺin Makkah
How it feels vs. what is true
only menobody faced this
a path walked beforeby every messenger

Ibn Kathir says Allah was consoling His Messenger ﷺ after Quraysh rejected him. The surah introduction notes he had grown tired after years of effort. Allah reminds him that messengers came before him to earlier peoples.

You are the only one in the office who prays. Or the only one at home trying to keep the family calm. Others walked this before you, and Allah saw each of them.

Nobody has ever been in a spot as lonely as mine.

I am walking a path many before me walked, and they were not left alone.

Try this

Read a short story of one earlier prophet tonight and notice what he faced.

Simplified reflection. Read the tafsir for scholarship.draft
Tafsir Ibn Kathir

Indeed, We sent (Messengers) before you (O Muhammad) amongst the earlier communities (10)And there never came a Messenger to them but that they mocked him (11)Thus We allow it to enter the hearts of the guilty (12)They would not believe in it (the Qur'an); and already the example of the ancients has gone forth (13)

The Idolators of Every Nation made a Mockery of their Messengers

Consoling His Messenger ﷺ for the rejection of the disbelieving Quraysh, Allah says that He has sent Messengers before him to the nations of the past, and no Messenger came to a nation but they rejected him and mocked him. Then He tells him that He lets disbelief enter the hearts of those sinners who are too stubborn and too arrogant to follow His guidance.

كَذَٰلِكَ نَسْلُكُهُ فِي قُلُوبِ الْمُجْرِمِينَ

(Thus We allow it to enter the hearts of the guilty.) Anas and Al-Hasan Al-Basri said that this referred to Shirk.

وَقَدْ خَلَتْ سُنَّةُ الْأَوَّلِينَ

(and already the example of the ancients has gone forth.) meaning the destruction wrought by Allah on those who rejected His Messengers, and how He saved His Prophets and their followers in this world and in the Hereafter, is well known.