ABSTRACT
The words secret and sirr pepper the texts of Derrida and Ibn 2Arabi. Both writers seem to be differently obsessed with their power, keen to delineate the (non)meanings of these words, even to examine the motives of those who would unlock them. Both writers seem to be aware of the possible futility of the secret – which, like Kundera’s brides and glory-hunters, only leads from ‘veil to veil’. Both writers appear to situate the ‘secret’ at the heart of their oeuvre, as the ultimate metaphor for what they have to say.
