IZMIR, Turkey — A ruling by Turkey’s top religious body that it is permissible to marry one’s adopted children created a new flashpoint between the state and Turkish citizens in the wake of a series of earthquakes that left one-seventh of the country under rubble.

With the death toll in Turkey exceeding 43,000 after a series of earthquakes — the most recent striking Monday — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan faces one of his worst challenges ahead of the elections tentatively scheduled for May 14, though some say it may be postponed a month. The opposition’s main point of attack now centers on many Turks’ complaints that institutions such as the military and the Turkish Red Crescent, which provided crucial aid in past disasters, were rendered ineffective by cronyism or simple inefficiency during Erdogan’s 20-year reign.

The Religious Affairs Directorate, which has grown in prominence under Erdogan, has often been criticized by the opposition, including its billion-dollar budget that is larger than those of many ministries. Its influence reaches many aspects of daily life, including the ever-growing number of religious schools, Quran courses for preschoolers and a TV channel to shape and influence the young. Its fatwas, which provide guidance to believers in constitutionally secular Turkey, and the declarations of its powerful head Ali Erbas have often been criticized by women’s and LGBTQ groups for fueling polarization between conservatives and liberals.

The last controversy is over Diyanet’s edict in response to a question about adopting children whose parents died in the earthquake. The directorate’s High Council of Religious Affairs wrote, “While Islam praised those who aid or take care of orphans, it does not recognize adoption as a legal status.” The three-paragraph text explained that under Islam, adopted children could not inherit from their adopted parents. However, it maintained, there was no obstruction to marriage between adopted children and their adoptive parents, though the topic of marriage was not in the question.