Arba'un 17 — God has prescribed ihsan upon everything

الأربعون 17 — إن الله كتب الإحسان على كل شيء

Shaddad ibn Aws's hadith, the seventeenth of al-Nawawi's Forty and of Ibn Rajab's commentary; transmitted by Muslim alone (1955) through Abu Qilaba from Abu al-Ash'ath al-San'ani from Shaddad ibn Aws, al-Bukhari omitting it as he narrates nothing from Abu al-Ash'ath in his Sahih though he is a reliable Syrian, with weak parallels from Samura ibn Jundab and Anas, and a mursal route 'upon every creature'; Ibn Rajab sets out two readings — that ihsan is written upon every created thing, so that 'everything' bears the prescription and ihsan is what is prescribed, or that ihsan is written toward or in everything, the one benefited being named rather than the one bound — and that the wording of 'writing' entails obligation for most jurists and usul scholars, the Quran using it both for what is legally obligatory and for what is decreed without fail (Jami' al-Ulum wal-Hikam pp. 360–374).