Time is a characteristic of our universe, and that includes sequences of events. Except for our gut feeling that time is eternal, we don't have evidence or reason to think that there was a sequence of events before the Big Bang. Remember, inflation is just a best guess based on what we see. I would guess that the notion of time becomes meaningless as you approach the early universe.
IMO this is a huge stumbling block in science, that many cannot get over. The nature of things does not need to coincide with our ability to comprehend it. The litmus test of knowledge is not whether or not it can be defined by a human paradigm. It is only that which follows from experiment and observation. Space and time do not exist for quantum particles as we experience them. We do not have the preferred perspective on space and time. If anything, it would make sense that ours is a limited perspective, designed specifically for our types of interactions, not designed to conceptualize the whole of them. 'Before the Big Bang' is all about us, not about the universe.