The Two Alike, the Two Similar,
the Two Close, and the Two Far 
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:
The Small 
The Large
The Absolute
We will continue,
discussing these different divisions of and their application, insha’ Allah, next
lesson.