Adrian “Ashir” Kirk is the founder and executive director of Measured Tones Institute of Quran, which is a religious and educational non-profit organization. From the age of 16 to 22, he went overseas to Syria and Morocco to study Arabic and various Islamic sciences with a heavy focus on tajweed (the science of Quran recitation). For 8 years, he taught Quran and Islamic studies at Islamic schools in Ohio and Tennessee, after which he decided to go full-time with his non-profit in 2021.

He currently holds 2 ijaazahs in the recitation of the whole Quran with tajweed in the Hafs style of recitation by way of Shaatibiyyah and Tayyibatun-Nashr. He holds an MDIV from Bayan Graduate School. Ashir is also a business owner, mosque board member, and Imam of Midtown Mosque in Memphis, TN, and Outreach Coordinator for the Muslim Prisoner Project.