Quran Universe
15:11

وَمَا يَأۡتِيهِم مِّن رَّسُولٍ إِلَّا كَانُواْ بِهِۦ يَسۡتَهۡزِءُونَ

Wama yateehim min rasoolin illa kanoo bihi yastahzioona

And no messenger would come to them except that they ridiculed him.

Word by word
  1. وَمَاAnd not
  2. يَأۡتِيهِمcame to them
  3. مِّنany
  4. رَّسُولٍMessenger
  5. إِلَّاbut
  6. كَانُواْthey did
  7. بِهِۦat him
  8. يَسۡتَهۡزِءُونَmock
Al-Hijr · 15:11Makkah

Every messenger who came was mocked.

Ridicule is an old pattern

The pattern
a messengercomes to a people
meets
ridiculeevery single time
What mockery proves
the message failedthey laughed
the usual responseeven to prophets

Ibn Kathir says no messenger came to a nation without being rejected and mocked. For the Prophet ﷺ, facing ridicule in Makkah, this meant the laughter was not a sign he had failed.

You start wearing hijab, or you stop drinking at work dinners, and someone jokes about it. It stings. The joke says more about an old pattern than about you.

If people laugh at what I do, I must be doing it wrong.

Being mocked for doing right has happened to the best people who ever lived.

Try this

Next time a joke stings, answer it with calm kindness, then let it go.

Simplified reflection. Read the tafsir for scholarship.draft
Tafsir Ibn Kathir (shared passage from 15:10)

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.