whether it existed before this world, and whether the world was preceded by time and matter, or was brought into being at the outset with neither time nor matter preceding it?

What the Quran and the Torah teach, and what the early generations of this community and its leading scholars agree upon, together with the leading scholars of the People of the Book, is that Allah created this world and brought it into existence from matter that had been created before it. As He states in the Quran:

“He directed Himself to the heaven while it was smoke”—that is, vapor—“and said to it and to the earth, ‘Come willingly or unwillingly.’” [Fussilat: 11]

Other created things already existed before that, such as the Throne and water. As Allah Most High says:

“It is He who created the heavens and the earth in six days, and His Throne was upon the water.” [Hūd: 7]

He created all this over a span of time other than that measured by the motion of the sun and moon, just as He tells us that He created the heavens, the earth, and everything between them in six days.

The sun and moon are themselves part of the heavens and the earth, and their motion came after their creation. Time measured by their motion—namely, the night and day that follow their motion—only came into existence after they were created. Allah has told us that He created the heavens, the earth, and everything between them in six days. Those days therefore constituted a span of time measured by a motion other than that of the sun and moon.

This is the position of the majority of philosophers who say that this world was created and brought into existence, and that matter preceded it. Some of them, however, are reported to have held that this particular matter is eternal and beginningless. This too is false, as has been explained at length elsewhere. The purpose here is merely to give a brief indication of the position of those who say that the statements of these people are supported by revelation.