It is neither. The relation between them, from one respect, is that of specification (i.e. general versus specific). Some of the sunnah is ḥadīth, while some ḥadīth is sunnah. So ḥadīth is broader than sunnah from one aspect, while sunnah is broader than ḥadīth from another. Much of what is narrated concerning the Prophet’s statements, actions, approvals or descriptions are ḥadīth and not sunnah. And much of what was passed on by the jurists of the various regions among the early generations, in terms of followed practices concerning prayer, charity, pilgrimage, edicts and rulings, are sunnah but not ḥadīth or reports.
They asked: Can you give us an example?
I replied:
Examples are abundant and widespread in the books of ḥadīth and fiqh.
They said: Please explain with alternating examples that would distinguish the two notions properly.
I replied:
3 Examples of Sunnah
An example of sunnah is what Mālik relates from Ḥumayd al-Ṭawīl from Anas b. Mālik who said: I prayed behind Abū Bakr, ʿUmar and ʿUthmān, and none of them practiced Basmalah when they began their prayers. Bukhārī and Muslim, as well as other Imāms of ḥadīth, also related this. It is additionally supported by a ḥadīth of Abū Hurayrah in which he reports that the Prophet, peace be upon him, said: God says: “I have divided the prayer into two halves between myself and my servant, and for my servant is what he/she asks for. When the servant states, ‘Praise belongs to God, Lord of the worlds,’ God replies, ‘My servant has praised me . . .’”
Another example [of sunnah] is what Yaḥyā b. Yaḥyā al-Laythī relates in the Muwaṭṭaʾ: I heard Mālik say concerning the six days of fasting after the Eid al-Fiṭr following Ramadan, “I have not observed any person of knowledge and understanding fast these days, and such a report has not reached me from any of the early authorities. And the people of knowledge considered the practice makrūh (detested) fearing that it would become an innovated practice or that ignorant ones would add to Ramadan that which did not belong to it.”
Yet another example is that Abū Dāwūd relates from Ṭawūs who said: I asked Ibn ʿUmar about praying two rakʿahs before Maghrib and he replied, “I have not seen anyone in the era of the Prophet, peace be upon him, pray these.” ʿAbd al-Razzāq relates in his Muṣannaf from Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī who said: “Neither Abū Bakr, nor ʿUmar, nor ʿUthmān ever prayed two rakʿahs before Maghrib.”
3 Examples of Ḥadīth
Examples of ḥadīth include what was related by Nasā’ī in his Sunan: Muḥammad b. ʿAbdullah b. ʿAbd al-Ḥakam informed us from Shuʿayb: Layth informed us: Khālid informed us from Saʿīd b. Abū Hilāl from Nuʿaym al-Mujmir, who said: I prayed behind Abū Hurayrah, and he practiced basmalah and then recited al-Fātiḥah . . . And he said at the end, “By the One in Whose Hand is my soul, my prayer most closely resembles that of the Prophet among you.”
