Location relative to Al-Aqsa
Located 200 meters south of the Asbat Gate in the eastern wall of the Al-Aqsa Mosque present as a part of the eastern wall of the old town.
Reason for the name
On the authority of Abu al-Awwam, the muezzin of Bayt al-Maqdis said: I heard Abdullah bin Amr ibn al-Aas say: It is the wall, which God mentioned in the Qur'an. “The day of hypocrites and opponents say to those who believe see us quoted from your light is said to back behind you and seek light and strike them with a fence to the gate of the inner mercy and apparent punishment before him”. The eastern wall inside the mosque and the phenomenon of the Valley of Hell.
Builder
It said during the reign of Abdul Malik bin Marwan.
Located on 200 meters south of the Alasbat gate, in the eastern wall of Al-Aqsa Mosque, represent part of the eastern wall of the Old Town.
One of the oldest gates of Al-Aqsa Mosque where it dates back to the Umayyad period in terms of its architectural and artistic elements.
*Great closed gate.
*The height of 11.5 m.
*Go down to it by a long way from inside the Aqsa.
*The gate consists of two gates: Rahma to the south and Tawba to the north.
*A double gate topped by two archways, leading to a hall covered with arches based on arches above huge Corinthian columns.
*The tomb named on both sides of the gate from the outside in the name of the cemetery of Rahma (including the graves of the Sahabi Shaddad bin Aws and Obada Bin Al-samet, may Allah be pleased with them).
The Christians believe about the gate
They believe that Jesus entered the gate on Easter, and that Heraclius entered Jerusalem after his victory over the Persians, they called him the Golden Gate, a false translation of his name in Greek, which means the beautiful gate.
The Crusader Occupation
The gate was opened twice only on the anniversary of the entry of Jesus (the Feast of the Palm), and the entry of Hercules into the city (Feast of the Cross-).
Early Islamic Period
The building is located inside the gate on the side of Al-Aqsa Mosque used as a hall of prayer, du’aa.
According to the historian Mujir al-Din al-Hanbali, that Imam al-Ghazali (may Allah have mercy on him) in 1948, studied in Al-Aqsa mosque and in his nook above Al Rahma gate, wrote part of his valuable book (revival of the sciences of religion).
The modern era
The Committee of Islamic Heritage has been constructed the gate and floor, take it the headquarters of its advocacy activities inside Al-Aqsa Mosque since 1992, the occupation authorities came to power in 2003.
The Zionist claim about the gate
They claim that Bab Rahma and Altawba is a Jewish heritage, and that it considered one of the gates of the alleged temple.
In the 1967 war, the Zionist war minister (Moshe Dayan) attempted to open the gate but failed.
An attempt made to break into it, which thwarted in 2002 when a Zionist tried to open a grave adjacent to the gate from the outside, and dug a tunnel under it that runs into Al Aqsa Mosque.
When will the gate close? And why?
First Opinion
The closure of the gate by Sultan Salah al-ddin al-Ayyubi after the liberation of Jerusalem on 27-7-583 / 2-10-1187 in order to protect the city and the mosque from any possible invasion.
Perhaps Salah al-Din’s goal is economic rather than military, by pushing the traveler to Al-Aqsa Mosque to enter the gates of the city leading to the markets, so exchange and benefit instead of direct entry to the mosque after visiting the graves of companions buried near the gate.
Second opinion
Historians attribute the closure of the Ottoman gate because of the myth among the people at that time that the Franks would return to occupy the city of Jerusalem through this gate.
Third opinion
The old gate closed and it was in two stages.
*In the early Islamic period (Abbasid or Fatimid), the armored wooden gates were permanently closed and turned inside the gate into a prayer hall (for the religious purpose of embodying the aforementioned verse of Surat Hadid);
Where the gate covered with iron sheets from outside, a metaphor for darkness, while the interior covered with shiny brass plates, a metaphor for light.
It called the light, as mentioned by the Jerusalemite historian (379 AH-990M).
Closed the gate to prevent the Valley of Hell outside the gate and Al-Aqsa Mosque and the gates remained closed until the Ottoman period, where it decided to close the gate with stone completely in an attempt to get rid of the rumor that the Franks will return from that gate.
Result of analysis of historical accounts
The third opinion is the opinion closest to the right.
As the oldest mention of the gate, we learn from the description of the traveler Nasir Khusrawa, 438 AH / 1047 CE, to the Al Rahma gate “at some point in time they were a vestibule converted to a mosque and adorned it with carpets”.
Therefore, the vestibule became a prayer hall after carpeted and no longer has Passage led out of the mosque.
The closure of the gate was in the first stage, such as closing the Bab Al-Sakina (brother of the Alsisila gate).
Where the wooden gate closed without the use of stones, and testifies to that described Mujir al-Din (900 AH / 1495) said: “They are now illegal”, he said while the old gate of funerals “a nice gate is blocked by building”.
If Bab Rahma blocked construction during the time of the Mujir al-Din period, he will mention it.
The popular saying that Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi is the one who closed the gate is a saying that has no evidence, and not said by the ancient historians.
For example, Mujir al-Din al-Hanbali said that he told him an old man who closed Bab Al-Rahma and repentance is Khalifa Omar ibn al-Khattab!
Important note
Between Majir al-Din and Salah al-Din less than 300 years, and if Salah al-Din is the one who closed them, it would have reached the knowledge of the one who told Mujair al-Din, but because the closure is very old, it attributed to the khalifa Omar ibn al-Khattab.
History
Said during the reign of Abdul Malik bin Marwan.