How Can The Hadith Be Separate From The Sunnah?
According to wikipedia the Christian gesture you are referring only started in 3rd century, that’s centuries after Jesus (AS) though. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sign_of_the_cross It also does not state that Jesus did it nor do Christians seems to present it as a sunnah (they present it as a symbol, different meaning for different churches so there is no consensus at all as to what it even means). And even if they did, its documentation shows that it was adopted later by followers. Similar is the case with most biddah. Sunnah does not guarantee against corruption such as forgetting/abandonment of an act but as soon as you add something to it, people as a whole will raise objection. So Sunnah is only protected from additions (biddat). Just like it is documented that Jesus did not do that gesture and it was an addition by churches. Discussion 3253 • Reply 3581 Comprehensive understanding what Sunnah is and how it is determined as well as addressing many objections and concerns of biddat: Discussion 79364 And most importantly, the misconception is that Hadith is the only writing. Testimony and written traditions by scholars also exists. Most of our early fiqh scholars started writing down sunnah of Prophet (PBUH) along with Hadiths. Christians never got to do this, they couldn’t even write down the Gospels (in Aramaic) when it was revealed let alone Sunnah of Jesus. Most writing in Greek comes decades after Jesus. So the comparison is weak.