What is the ruling on fasting on the day of Eid, considering it to be Ramadan?

The questioner : What is the ruling on the one who fasts on the day of Eid while believing it to be part of Ramadan?

The Shaykh : Yes, if this fasting stems from ijtihad (independent legal reasoning) and knowledge on his part, and it is not as if it were otherwise, then there is no sin on him, because he is a mujtahid (a scholar qualified to derive rulings), so in any case he is rewarded. As for the one who is prohibited from fasting, it is the one who knows that the day is Eid and yet he fasts it. This is the one to whom the known prohibition is directed, which is the opposite of the one you are citing as an example. But he, or perhaps this is in your second question? What is the second question?
Abu Malik : A follow-up to the first answer.

The Shaykh : Please.
Abu Malik : I mean, this second practice might open a wide door of evil to the people, and every person would become a mujtahid and say, "I saw it," and the people would gather, perhaps calling this person, or even dozens, or hundreds, and you know the crescent or this moon. Here, there would be a calamity in the disagreement of the Ummah (the Muslim community) in one of the acts of worship, and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), as is well known, So if the Ummah divided in their fasting in their lands, with every land or group of lands fasting, and their fasting differed from that of other lands or other countries, we would say this is possible because it is a group. But if there are individuals who undertake this action, it opens a door of evil and creates a great difference among the people in the same country. And of course, we say this if the sighting is multiple or the sightings differ, as some jurists say, and some lands fast based on the sighting of that land, and another land or other lands follow them. The important thing is that the Muslims divided in their fasting, so we say this is acceptable to some extent. But for them to differ in the same country, this is a real major problem.

The Shaykh : There is no doubt, may Allah bless you, but what is the conclusion? The conclusion of this speech is that this man is mistaken. We have said that he is mistaken, but we distinguish between a mistaken person who has a type of ijtihad and another who knows that this is the day of Eid and yet wants to draw near to Allah by fasting this day. This person is not rewarded, but he bears a great burden of sin. As for the person about whom the question was asked, and we personally do not know him, we said if he exerted this ijtihad and claimed that this day is a day of fasting and not a day of Eid, then I believe there is no sin on him, but rather he is rewarded for his ijtihad in which he erred. And I think that in some of the questions he listed earlier, and we asked him to direct a question by question so we could answer each question directly, there is what you touched upon in your answer, which is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): And this is what we rely on in declaring this man mistaken, because he followed his opinion and ijtihad and contradicted what the majority of Muslims in this country are upon. Had that not been the case, we would not have said he erred, just as we do today. Today, we were discussing that we see the sun has set and we are fasting, so we break our fast, while the masses are still fasting until what? They hear the adhan (the call to prayer). So the matter regarding fasting is completely contrary to this, because the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said: meaning entering Ramadan and exiting it. So if it is by some ijtihad, even if he erred, he is not equal, for example, to the one who says, "By Allah, I know that the day is Eid and I want to fast it." It is necessary to distinguish between this and that. So we ruled on the first man that he erred because he contradicted the Muslims in their fasting, even if they were mistaken, because when was this error revealed? Later. And this revelation is not certain, but he holds this opinion, so we said what we said earlier regarding him: he is mistaken, but considering his ijtihad, we say he is rewarded with one reward. So what was in your questions?