Every Turkish Muslim estate plan should start with a phone call that costs nothing. Alo 190 connects you to the fatwa apparatus of the Presidency of Religious Affairs, whose Din Isleri Yuksek Kurulu (DIYK) is the highest religious ruling body in Turkey's official structure. For inheritance, the service does the thing no website table can: it applies faraid to your actual family configuration, with its converts, blended marriages, missing heirs, debts and mahr, and gives you the shares and the rulings in concrete terms. It is free, national, and startlingly underused relative to what it anchors. Here is how to use it properly.
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The two rulings that carry the whole system
Most DIYK inheritance guidance elaborates two practically decisive positions. First, the wasiyya limit: a Muslim may bequeath at most one third of the estate, and not to existing legal heirs, per the dominant Hanafi position the DIYK follows; more than a third, or a bequest to an heir, requires the heirs' consent. This defines what belongs in your notary will, and it maps neatly onto Turkish civil law's disposable portion, as we explain in the wasiyya third article. Second, voluntary redistribution: heirs may, after civil law divides the estate, redistribute according to Islamic shares by mutual consent, and doing so discharges the religious obligation. This ruling is the religious half of the TMK 676 bridge, the mechanism by which faraid actually happens under Turkish law; the legal half is in our TMK 676 guide. Between them, the two rulings resolve the apparent conflict between the systems: the will carries the third, the family carries the rest.
The channels, and when to use which
| Channel | Best for | How it works |
|---|---|---|
| Alo 190 phone line | First contact; straightforward configurations; quick rulings | Call, describe the family configuration, receive the ruling verbally; free, nationwide |
| Written fatwa application | Complex cases; anything the family will rely on later | Submit the question in writing; receive a written, citable answer; the form heirs can rally around at division time |
| Provincial mufti offices | In-person consultation; sensitive family dynamics; document review | Every province maintains mufti offices with consultation hours; bring the family details and, if drafted, the will |
| Published DIYK guidance | Self-education before asking | Faraid share guidance and FAQs published by the Kurul; read first, ask second |
Asking well: the information to bring
Faraid is configuration-sensitive: shares change with which relatives survive. A productive consultation needs the full picture, and families routinely omit exactly the items that change the answer. Bring: the complete list of potential heirs (spouse, children by each marriage, parents if living, siblings if no descendants); any deceased children who left children of their own (orphaned grandchildren raise the questions tables never answer); religious status where relevant to the asker; outstanding debts and, critically, unpaid mahr, which is a debt of the estate before any division; assets held jointly or already gifted during life; and any existing will. Ask specifically: what are the faraid shares for this configuration; what may the wasiyya third do here; and, where relevant, how should lifetime gifts already made be treated. Get the answer in writing for anything the family will depend on at division time.
The honest limits
- Advisory only: DIYK guidance has no binding force in civil courts. It tells the family what religion asks; it compels nobody. The enforcement mechanism is family consent via TMK 676, full stop.
- No drafting: the service rules; it does not write wills. Execution happens at the notary (about 3,000 TL at the 2026 tariff; our (notary guide) has the details).
- Turkish only: no formal English or Arabic channel; diaspora family members need translation help.
- Official positions: rulings are mainstream Hanafi-informed positions of the state religious establishment. Muslims following independent scholarly circles may want a second opinion, though on inheritance the DIYK positions sit squarely in the classical mainstream.
The notary process is covered in our notary will guide.
Where the fatwa fits in the plan
Sequence matters. The fatwa comes first because everything downstream depends on the numbers: the will's wasiyya provisions must respect the third; the family conversations need actual shares to converge on; the TMK 676 agreement drafts to the fatwa's arithmetic. A written DIYK answer attached to the notary will and shared with the heirs is the cheapest insurance in Turkish estate planning: at division time, the family debates nothing, because the authoritative math already exists in a document the deceased obtained. Compare that to the common alternative, where a grieving family reconstructs faraid from a relative's memory of a sermon, and the value of a free phone call becomes obvious. The complete sequence, fatwa to will to family protocol, is our estate planning checklist.
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Bottom line
In place of the commercial Islamic will industry other countries grew, Turkey has a free state fatwa apparatus and a notary system, and the honest assessment is that the combination covers most of what families need, if they use it. The Diyanet layer is complete: authoritative, national, free, and equipped for the hard cases. Its only real weakness is that people do not call. Call. Then execute at the notary, prepare the family, and revisit at life events. The toolkit is on the estate planning hub, starting with what actually works under Turkish law.