From some of the verses we find that those who do nothing but sin will remain forever in Hell. Verse 23 of Surah Jinn says:

“whoever disobeys God and His Messenger shall surely have the fire of Hell and abide in it forever.”

The same meaning with some addition is there in verse 14 of Surah Nisaa;

“God will throw in the fire to abide in it forever whoever disobeys god and his Prophet and exceeds the limit. For him shall be a painful torment.”

A similar meaning is found in verse 74 of Surah Zukhruf:

“Verily the guilty ones shall abide in the torment of Hell for ever.”

Keeping in view that verse 20 of Surah Jinn invited to the monotheism taught by the Messenger and the Jihad against polytheism the verse 24 of the same Surah speaks about the words of the pagans of Makkah when they ridiculed the Messenger for not having helpers. It seems that this refers to denial of monotheism and the inclination to paganism but there is no proof of the sinners being in Hell forever.

Verse 74 of Surah Zukhruf has the same meaning because it speaks about those who were the enemies of truth and believed that God was unaware of their secrets. This is the sign of disbelief. (Reflect)

Moist commentators have said that this means sinning against the Tawhid of God(1) but this seems far fetched that “Khaluud” means a long period of punishment because the word “ Abdaa” which means forever added to the word means an eternal punishment from God.

1. See also Majmaul Bayan vols. 9 and 10 page 373, al Mizan vol.20 page 52, Ruhul Bayan vol.10 page 200 and Ruhul Ma’ani vol.29 page 94 for further study.