[4] Hasyim Asy'ari's ancestry can be traced to Sultan Hadiwijaya of Pajang, and further, to Brawijaya VI (Girindrawardhana), the last king of Majapahit.

[citation needed] He was educated by Ahmad Khatib al-Minangkabawi, an Imam at Masjid al-Haram and ulama, who was also the teacher of Ahmad Dahlan, the founder of Muhammadiyah, and Zakaria bin Muhammad Amin, the founder of Al-Khairiyah Islamic boarding school and MDTA Mahbatul Ulum.

[5] At the age of twenty, he married Khadijah, the daughter of Pesantren Siwalan Panji's leader.

During the Japanese occupation era, he was arrested, and several months later he was released and became Head of Religious Affairs.

[8] He died suddenly on 25 July 1947 due to hypertension, after hearing news that Dutch troops were winning a battle in Malang.