diff --git a/cmd/zfs/zfs_main.c b/cmd/zfs/zfs_main.c
index 84073435e2..83f02666d2 100644
--- a/cmd/zfs/zfs_main.c
+++ b/cmd/zfs/zfs_main.c
@@ -5641,6 +5641,7 @@ share_mount_one(zfs_handle_t *zhp, int op, int flags, char *protocol,
 	char mountpoint[ZFS_MAXPROPLEN];
 	char shareopts[ZFS_MAXPROPLEN];
 	char smbshareopts[ZFS_MAXPROPLEN];
+	char overlay[ZFS_MAXPROPLEN];
 	const char *cmdname = op == OP_SHARE ? "share" : "mount";
 	struct mnttab mnt;
 	uint64_t zoned, canmount;
@@ -5747,6 +5748,19 @@ share_mount_one(zfs_handle_t *zhp, int op, int flags, char *protocol,
 		return (0);
 	}
 
+	/*
+	 * Overlay mounts are disabled by default but may be enabled
+	 * via the 'overlay' property or the 'zfs mount -O' option.
+	 */
+	if (!(flags & MS_OVERLAY)) {
+		if (zfs_prop_get(zhp, ZFS_PROP_OVERLAY, overlay,
+			    sizeof (overlay), NULL, NULL, 0, B_FALSE) == 0) {
+			if (strcmp(overlay, "on") == 0) {
+				flags |= MS_OVERLAY;
+			}
+		}
+	}
+
 	/*
 	 * At this point, we have verified that the mountpoint and/or
 	 * shareopts are appropriate for auto management. If the
diff --git a/include/sys/fs/zfs.h b/include/sys/fs/zfs.h
index 227d8b2fbd..d54cd56790 100644
--- a/include/sys/fs/zfs.h
+++ b/include/sys/fs/zfs.h
@@ -150,6 +150,7 @@ typedef enum {
 	ZFS_PROP_SELINUX_ROOTCONTEXT,
 	ZFS_PROP_RELATIME,
 	ZFS_PROP_REDUNDANT_METADATA,
+	ZFS_PROP_OVERLAY,
 	ZFS_NUM_PROPS
 } zfs_prop_t;
 
diff --git a/man/man8/zfs.8 b/man/man8/zfs.8
index 96cac6f5a8..8b22c5af46 100644
--- a/man/man8/zfs.8
+++ b/man/man8/zfs.8
@@ -1409,6 +1409,17 @@ This flag sets the SELinux context for unlabeled files.  See \fBselinux\fR(8) fo
 This flag sets the SELinux context for the root inode of the filesystem.  See \fBselinux\fR(8) for more information.
 .RE
 
+.sp
+.ne 2
+.mk
+.na
+\fB\fBoverlay\fR=\fBon\fR | \fBoff\fR\fR
+.ad
+.sp .6
+.RS 4n
+Allow mounting on a busy directory or a directory which already contains files/directories. This is the default mount behavior for Linux filesystems.  However, for consistency with ZFS on other platforms overlay mounts are disabled by default.  Set \fBoverlay=on\fR to enable overlay mounts.
+.RE
+
 .SS "Temporary Mount Point Properties"
 .LP
 When a file system is mounted, either through \fBmount\fR(8) for legacy mounts or the \fBzfs mount\fR command for normal file systems, its mount options are set according to its properties. The correlation between properties and mount options is as follows:
diff --git a/module/zcommon/zfs_prop.c b/module/zcommon/zfs_prop.c
index 77491cdb74..e60c4f7d42 100644
--- a/module/zcommon/zfs_prop.c
+++ b/module/zcommon/zfs_prop.c
@@ -295,6 +295,8 @@ zfs_prop_init(void)
 	zprop_register_index(ZFS_PROP_NBMAND, "nbmand", 0, PROP_INHERIT,
 	    ZFS_TYPE_FILESYSTEM | ZFS_TYPE_SNAPSHOT, "on | off", "NBMAND",
 	    boolean_table);
+	zprop_register_index(ZFS_PROP_OVERLAY, "overlay", 0, PROP_INHERIT,
+	    ZFS_TYPE_FILESYSTEM, "on | off", "OVERLAY", boolean_table);
 
 	/* default index properties */
 	zprop_register_index(ZFS_PROP_VERSION, "version", 0, PROP_DEFAULT,