Are the people who lived before Adam also accountable to God?

Whoever lived without a divine law is not judged by a law he never knew. But every being carries an inner law within it and experiences the consequences when it violates it.

The question assumes that there were already people before Adam (as). Among them, two groups must be distinguished.

The first lived shortly before Adam (as). Their earlier order had long since decayed, and they had no law from God. Such people are not called to account for breaking a law that was never brought to them. This matches the first verse above.

Even so, no one is entirely without responsibility. Every living being, not only man, carries an inner law placed in its nature. Whoever goes against it experiences the consequences quite naturally. Someone who harms his body feels the effects, even without a judge passing sentence. In this sense every being is accountable to God.

The other group lived much earlier. God most likely revealed a way of life to them as well, of which hardly anything has come down to us. A hint of this can be found among the Aboriginal peoples of Australia, whose history goes back around 40,000 years. Many of their tribes speak entirely different languages and had no contact with one another for a long time. Yet they know circumcision and understand dreams as messages about the future, just as the Holy Qur’an tells of Joseph (as). This points to a common, very ancient religion.

So God has never left people without guidance. Where a law was brought, people will be asked about it. Where there was none, the law that God placed in the nature of every being applies.