The magazine was named after the town of Dabiq, Syria, which is believed in Islamic eschatology to be the primary location where the Muslims will fight and bring about Jesus Christ (‘Isa ibn Maryam) and the fall of the Anti-Christ (al-Masih ad-Dajjal) (see Al-Malhama Al-Kubra), preceding the Day of Judgement.

[1] According to the magazine, its name was taken from the town of Dabiq in northern Syria, which is mentioned in a hadith about the End Times.

[10] Harleen K. Gambhir of the Institute for the Study of War considered that while al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula's magazine Inspire focuses on encouraging its readers to carry out lone-wolf attacks on the West, Dabiq was more concerned with establishing the religious legitimacy of IS and its self-proclaimed caliphate, and encouraging Muslims to emigrate there.

[28][29][30] In September 2016, IS replaced Dabiq with another online magazine, Rumiyah (Arabic for Rome), published in English and other languages.

Analysts speculated this was due to IS being driven out of the town of Dabiq by the Turkish Military and Syrian Rebels in October 2016.