This study investigates the types of counter-discourse employed in the expositional sermons of Nahj ul-Balagha and explains their role in representing power relations, ideology, and discursive conflict during the era of Imam Ali (A.S.). In contexts of discursive struggle, power is reproduced not only through political institutions but also through the construction of meaning, the legitimation of dominant narratives, and the exclusion of competing voices. Explaining how resistance discourse reconstructs meaning, legitimacy, and power therefore constitutes a fundamental issue in the analysis of religious and historical texts. Accordingly, this study examines the types of counter-discourse employed by Imam Ali (A.S.), the discursive strategies on which they are based, and their functions in challenging the dominant discourse. The analysis is conducted within the framework of Counter-Discourse Theory. The findings reveal that Imam Ali (A.S.) employs twelve types of counter-discourse, including metaphorical, embedded, narrative, interrogative, referential, actor-restoration, authorization, audience-invocation, prescriptive, transcendental, and institutional forms, to challenge the Umayyad discursive order and articulate an alternative discourse grounded in justice, piety, and the Prophetic tradition. Among these, metaphorical counter-discourse is the most frequent, whereas embedded counter-discourse represents the most complex pattern of discursive organization. Narrative and referential strategies expose historical distortions and reconstruct legitimacy, while the binary opposition of “us” and “them” functions as the principal mechanism for consolidating the discourse of truth against the dominant deviant discourse. Overall, Nahj ul-Balagha emerges as a dynamic discourse that systematically contests Umayyad hegemony and provides a comprehensive framework for analyzing counter-discourse in religious and historical texts.