Early life Idham Chalid was born on August 27, 1921, in Satui,
Tanah Bumbu regency, in the southeast portion of
South Kalimantan. He is the eldest of five children. His father was Muhammad Chalid, a person from Amuntai, about 200 kilometers from
Banjarmasin. When he was six years old, his family moved to Amuntai and lived in the Tangga Ulin area, his father's ancestral hometown.
Education He was admitted to the second grade of Amuntai People's School (SR). After graduating from there, he continued his education to Madrasah Ar-Rasyidiyyah in 1922. Idham continued his education at the Gontor Islamic Boarding School located in
Ponorogo,
East Java. Becoming fluent in a number of languages, including
Japanese. After graduating from Gontor, 1943, he continued his education in
Jakarta. In the capital, his fluency resulted in him being employed as a translator between the Japanese and the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU). Around this time, he graduated from an Islamic teaching college, and would go on to work as a teacher at Islamic institutes from 1943-1945. == Political career ==