They -your people- seek counsel from you O Muhammad concerning the deceased who is childless and fatherless. Say to them: "Allah’s decretal reply to your question concerns the childless and fatherless is formally announced, thus: If a man dies and he has no child nor a father but he has a sister, then she has the rightful claim to one half of what he has left." And should the reverse be the case then he inherits all her property if she has no child. And if the deceased in question has two sisters or more, then they go share and share alike in two thirds of what he left. And if they are a mixed company of men and women - brothers and sisters, then the general principle of inheritance applies; the male inherits the equivalent of what is apportioned to two females. Allah sets forth for you in detail the principles governing hereditary succession to property so that you do not go wrong, and Allah is 'Alimun of all in all.