Modernization has indeed brought about a significant change in education. In response to it, education has reoriented itself in terms of its curriculum, teaching methodology, teaching qualification, institution management, leadership management and so on. In Indonesia efforts to modernize education are still limited to what seems to be the mere surface of the matter. These efforts in other words, do not deal as yet with the substance ?namely the philosophical aspect- of education. KH. Hasyim Asy?ari however, is an exception. Having been thought of as a traditional scholar, he nonetheless was capable of providing insights that might lead to a dynamization and modernization of education in Indonesia. His thoughts are highly relevant to the issue of educational reform. Given that his ideas are largely conceptual and philosophical, a study that concerns itself with this area of investigation must pay an attention not only to his intellectual corpus but also to those technical and operational issues that have to do with this corpus. In this way we will have a comprehensive and balanced view of education; a view that entertains the belief that education is there to produce man of both knowledge and morality, man that both knows and obeys the norms and values of society.