The Concept of "Kalam" in Imam Sibawaih's View on "Al-Kitab": Arabic Linguistic Studies

A word cannot be said to be a speech when it does not fulfill the standard criteria in the structure that exists in speech. This is of particular concern to an Arabic linguistic figure named Imam Sibawaih who has a special explanation of the standards in assessing an utterance as kalam. This opinion can be seen from his work entitled "Al-Kitab", one of the Arabic grammatical books that became the initial reference for Arabic linguistic grammatical scholars. However, in the book, Imam Sibawaih does not explicitly explain, but some examples and arguments are presented in his work entitled "Al-Kitab". Therefore, this study aims to reveal the standard criteria of a word that can be said to be an utterance according to Imam Sibawaih's view in his book entitled "Al-Kitab". This research is descriptive-qualitative research using data sources in the form of Imam Sibawaih's book entitled "Al-Kitab". The data collection method in this research uses the listening method with documentation techniques. The method of data analysis in this study uses a descriptive method with the hermeneutic approach to analyze the purpose of Imam Sibawaih's explanation in the examples and arguments presented in his work entitled "Al-Kitab". The result of the research is the discovery of the concept of "kalam" in the view of Imam Sibawaih in the "Al-Kitab" in the form of (1) kalam must be by the structure of language and meaning, (2) kalam must have benefits, (3) kalam must be by the context, (4) kalam is not composed of words that have opposite meanings