Cognitive warfare is one of the most critical components of hybrid warfare in the modern era, aimed at manipulating perception, analysis, and decision-making processes of target audiences. Islamic sources—particularly Nahj al-Balaghah—contain numerous instances of responses to such cognitive threats. This study, focusing on the sermons of Nahj al-Balaghah, employs thematic analysis to identify and explain the cognitive strategies employed by Imam Ali (peace be upon him) in confronting political deception, historical distortion, and the engineering of public opinion. The findings reveal that Imam Ali (PBUH) utilized strategies such as exposing hypocrisy, reconstructing accurate historical narratives, critiquing power structures founded on deceit, and raising public awareness about fallacious arguments. Furthermore, critical rereading of history, revealing the mechanisms of power-driven deception, the use of an expositional and unmasking discourse, and the decoding of enemy psychological operations are among Imam Ali’s key methods for unveiling historical and political distortions. The findings of this study indicate that Imam Ali (PBUH), in Nahj al-Balaghah, demonstrates a profound understanding of cognitive warfare. Through methods such as disclosure, critical analysis, historical reconstruction, and the awakening of public consciousness, he presents an inspiring model for confronting contemporary cognitive threats. Imam Ali’s (PBUH) cognitive strategies in countering distortion and...