The meeting of two letters is of three different ways:

1. Meeting of the two in pronunciation and writing, in that there is no separation between them, such as the two in  and the two  in   .

2.  Meeting of the two in writing only, such as in : .  Here the two  are next to each other, but  prevents them from being pronounced together, by the way we read (

3.  Meeting of the two in pronunciation only, as in .  In this case the alif separates the two  from each other, but since the alif is not pronounced, the two  meet in pronunciation. 

The first  type is what will be discussed in this and subsequent lessons; the second and third type do not enter this section or do not apply to the way we read. When discussing the relationship of two letter that meet, it does not matter whether they meet in one word or are in two different words, and the letters meet each other by one being at the end of a word and the other at the beginning of the next word. 

The study of the relationships between letters is important to learn which letters can merge with others and under which circumstances.

The relationship between two meeting letters is divided into four divisions:

                 1.      The Two Like Each Other

                 2.    The Two of the Same Nature as Each Other

                 3.   The Two Approximates to Each Other

                 4.  The Two Far from Each Other

  The Two Like Each Other

Its Definition: They are the  two letters that are the same in characteristic and in articulation point.. This means they are the exact same letters next to each other. Examples of this are: The two in  , or the two  in :  , or the two   in .

There is an exception to this rule when two  and two  are next to each other in writing, but one of the two  and one of the two  are a medd letter such as in
   and .  In the first example:  the  of the word  is a medd letter.  The first  of the word  is not a medd letter.  In the second example: , the  of the word is a medd letter, so we the have a natural lengthening, the next letter following this   is a with a vowel on it,  .  We then apply this exception of medd letters not merging into non-medd letters of the same type, and do not merge (make of of ) the two letters.  This is in contrast to the or    saakinah of  which are followed by a  or with a vowel, such as in:     . In this case there is  of the two letters that are the same (here, a ).   

 , or the two alike, has three divisions:

1.   The Small

2.      The Large 

3.    The Absolute 

We will continue, discussing these different divisions of  and their application, insha’ Allah, next lesson.