TMK 676: The Heir Agreement That Makes Faraid Possible in Turkey (2026)

Turkish law will not enforce Islamic inheritance shares; we establish that at length in Islamic inheritance under Turkish law. But it contains one article that makes them achievable anyway. TMK Article 676 provides that heirs may, by unanimous written agreement, divide the estate however they choose: any proportions, any asset allocation, regardless of what intestacy or a will would have produced. The instrument is called a miras taksim sozlesmesi (inheritance division contract), and for Turkish Muslims it is the single most important provision in the Civil Code, because it is the only bridge between what religion asks and what courts will register. This article is about how the bridge works and how families keep it standing.

The legal mechanics

After death, the estate vests in the heirs as a community; civil shares determine each heir's entitlement. TMK 676 lets the heirs replace that default by contract: a written agreement, signed by all heirs, dividing the estate in the proportions and specific allocations they choose. Validity requires writing and unanimity; the agreement then governs registration of real property, transfer of vehicles and accounts, the lot. Key implications: the agreement happens after death (you cannot bind future heirs while alive); every heir must have capacity and consent freely; minors' interests involve guardianship oversight, which constrains how far below their civil entitlement a minor's share can be set; and an heir's creditors have interests that a division cannot simply defeat. Within those limits, the family's word is law.

Diyanet's endorsement, and why it matters

The religious half of the bridge: Diyanet's Din Isleri Yuksek Kurulu explicitly rules that heirs may redistribute an estate according to faraid by mutual consent, and that doing so discharges the religious obligation. This is the linchpin ruling of Turkish Muslim estate planning, because it means the civil detour through equal statutory shares does not taint the outcome: what matters religiously is where the property ends up when the family finishes, not the intermediate legal route. A family that takes civil title and then executes a faraid-patterned TMK 676 agreement has, per the official religious authority, done the thing fully. Get the shares for your configuration from the fatwa channels first; our Diyanet guide explains Alo 190 and the mufti network.

Where it breaks: the unanimity problem

One dissenting heir defeats the entire plan; the estate defaults to civil shares. Dissent is not hypothetical, and pretending otherwise produces bad planning. The realistic failure modes: an heir who benefits more under civil shares and prefers the money (a daughter civil law gives one half but faraid gives one third; a spouse whose civil quarter exceeds the faraid eighth); an heir estranged from the family or the religion; an heir under financial pressure whose creditors effectively vote; an heir abroad, or a minor whose guardian cannot lawfully consent to a reduced share; and old family conflict wearing a fiqh costume. Note the pattern in the first item: faraid's divergences from civil law systematically ask women to accept less than their civil entitlement, and a plan that assumes wives and daughters will always consent is not a plan; it is a hope with paperwork.

How families make unanimity likely

• Say it while alive: heirs honor wishes they heard from the person, not wishes discovered in a drawer. The single strongest predictor of a successful agreement is the deceased having discussed it openly.
• Write the intent: a statement of faraid wishes accompanying the notary will, with the Diyanet ruling attached, gives the family a text to rally around. Not enforceable; profoundly persuasive.
• Educate, do not assume: heirs who understand why faraid divides as it does (and that the widow's mahr and debts come first, and that consent must be free) agree more readily than heirs ambushed with a table of fractions.
• Balance while alive: lifetime gifts (hibe) can pre-position assets where post-mortem consensus looks unlikely, within the tenkis lookback limits; see our (hibe guide).
• Choose the executor of consensus: in practice one respected family member or imam shepherds the agreement; identify that person early and brief them.
• Never coerce: religiously, a consent extracted by pressure discharges nothing; legally, it invites challenge. An heir who freely keeps their civil share has done nothing wrong under either system, and the family should be told exactly that.

The hibe mechanics are in our lifetime gifts article.

Executing the agreement well

Practical sequencing for the family after a death: obtain the inheritance certificate establishing civil heirship; inventory assets and debts, and settle debts and mahr first, since both systems put them ahead of division; get the faraid computation for the actual heir set from Diyanet channels; draft the taksim agreement allocating specific assets (who takes the apartment, who takes cash equalization) rather than bare fractions, because specific allocation is what registries process; have every heir sign, with independent advice for anyone whose share drops below their civil entitlement; and register the results. Where the family includes minors, take legal advice before promising anything: guardianship law protects a minor's civil entitlement, and the honest solution is often to run the faraid division among consenting adults while the minor keeps the civil share until majority, revisiting by consent later.

Bottom line

TMK 676 is the whole game: the one mechanism by which Islamic inheritance actually happens under Turkish law, endorsed by the state's own religious authority, dependent entirely on a family that consents. The law cannot manufacture that consent; only the family can, and mostly before anyone dies. Treat the agreement as the destination and everything else, the will, the fatwa, the conversations, as the road built toward it. The full sequence is in our estate planning checklist; the toolkit lives on the estate planning hub.